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The best reason to never let your cat enter the kitchen.
"It's not what you think! I know it looks like we're cleaning dishes, but actually we're having sex."
Gregory House, House

A common trope in romantic comedies is the humorous misunderstanding, or to put it simply: "It's not what it looks like!"

A couple teetering between Will They or Won't 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, hotel room or whatever, 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 mean 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 vent to after her latest boyfriend dumped her. The scales even out, the status quo (i.e., Unresolved Sexual Tension) is restored, and the fans tear their hair out and scream at the writers for some progress, dammit!note 

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 non-romantic situations, such as one person thinking another person has committed (or is planning to commit) some heinous act, or misinterpreting a harmless situation into something scandalous. Mistaken murderers involving accidents with sharp utensils and bottles of tomato sauce are surprisingly common. Or more sinisterly, the person may be discovered at the scene of an actual murder, making them look like the killer; that trope is The Corpse Stops Here.

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.

Supertrope to Mistaken for Cheating which is this trope applied to perceived infidelity. Can provide the grounds for a Second-Act Breakup or Third-Act Misunderstanding. See Innocent Innuendo for a more sexual-related variant of this trope, and Abuse Mistake for a more violent variant. If the whole thing could be cleared up by one simple statement that nobody ever thinks to say, it's probably an Idiot Plot. Compare That Came Out Wrong and Grossout Fakeout. If the guy looks at the girl dead in the eye and says "This is exactly what it looks like", see Not Even Bothering with an Excuse.


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    Advertising 
  • This series of Ameriquest ads, based around the tagline, "Don't judge too quickly. We won't.":
    • The first one depicts a man preparing dinner for himself and his wife. While the man is chopping vegetables, his cat drops a pot of red soup the man was cooking. The man frantically picks up the cat by the scruff of its neck... without putting his knife down, making it appear to his wife as she walks in that he was trying to kill his cat.
    • The second one in the compilation depicts a father driving his teenage daughter and some of her friends to a concert. The daughter wants to buy some gum, so they pull over to go to a convenience store. The father tries to give the daughter money from inside the car so that she could buy the gum she wants, but the way the daughter bends over to take the money leads some cops to believe that the father was soliciting a prostitute.
    • The third one has a man accidentally dropping his chocolate near his dog as the dog gets excited. When he picks up the chocolate to eat it, a girl and her grandmother mistake him for eating dog poop.
    • The fourth one has a woman in an airplane trying to cross sleeping passengers in order to go to the restroom, but she accidentally trips over a man, waking him up. She ends up falling on top of him, into a position that, to all the onlookers who also woke up, looked like they were joining the Mile-High Club.
    • The fifth one has a man lying in a hospital bed with two doctors watching him. The man's wife and daughter have come to visit. An annoying fly buzzes around the room, and one of the doctors manage to shock the fly to death, saying that "that killed him (the fly)". However, the man's family walks in right as he says the line, making it sound like the man was accidentally killed by the doctors.
    • Another one has a man shopping at a convenience store while talking on the phone using an earpiece about how he thinks the other party is being overcharged for a deck. At the checkout, he says "Well, I hate to tell you this, but you're getting robbed. Did you hear me? You're getting robbed" while reaching into his coat pocket for his money. Cue the cashier pepper spraying him, hitting him with a baseball bat, and a woman taking him.
  • This This is SportsCenter ad. Explanation: Jorge Posada is a catcher for the New York Yankees. Catchers don't normally wear the traditional baseball cap due to them wearing full face masks when out on the field. David "Big Papi" Ortiz is a designated hitter for the Boston Red Sox, the Yankees' arch rival. Ortiz is wearing Posada's Yankees cap to start breaking it in like most ballplayers' caps, just as Wally the Green Monster, the Red Sox mascot, is walking by.
  • A commercial featured a man meeting a woman who just moved into his apartment complex. A little later, he decides to tape a note to her door offering to help her move. But all he has is duct tape, and he has to use a knife to cut off a square. Cut to the woman opening her door and seeing the man right outside holding a knife and a long strip of duct tape.
  • Invoked by a Canadian broadcaster promoting audio described programming for the vision impaired; the ad starts off blurry, looking like something, but then the scene is revealed to be something else, with the justification that without described video, someone vision impaired wouldn't know the scene was the other thing (i.e. sounding like a woman giving birth in a hospital, but actually a couple unsuccessfully trying to cram a sofa into an elevator)
  • A series of Downy commercials advertising their WrinkleGuard product play the trope straight, then invert it.
    • The first commercial has a teenage couple whose clothes were wrinkled by the seatbelts in the boy's car. The girl's mother, seeing their clothes, assumes they've been up to no good and angrily pulls her daughter in the home and slams the door in the boy's face, as he weakly apologizes. On the next date, having used the aforementioned product, their clothes are straight and the girl's mother is relieved. As the boy leaves, however, we see a hickey on his neck.
    • The second commercial has the same boy walking downstairs as his grandparents are in the closet putting away some stuff that had fallen. He overhears them and then sees their wrinkled clothes and assuming the worst, runs away in fear. Later, he sees his grandparents coming out of the closet, but noticing their clothes are unwrinkled, assumes it was innocent. After he leaves, however, his grandfather winks at his grandmother, who giggles, implying it something more happened.

    Asian Animation 
  • Season 7 episode 26 of Happy Heroes is about one of Big M.'s monsters, Punk Monster, pulling a Heel–Face Turn and doing good deeds. One of those deeds is to help a boy open a can of tomato soda, which the monster finds so hard that he whips out a knife to open the can and gets the soda all over the kid, who falls over. Sweet S. comes to the scene and thinks Punk Monster just killed the child since the soda on the kid and the knife looks like blood.

    Comic Books 
  • In an issue of All-New Wolverine, Deadpool and Gabby are investigating an animal testing facility, and find it's full of undead test subjects. Laura / Wolverine II tracks them down and finds Deadpool with four zombie squirrels skewered on each katana.
    Deadpool: It's not what it looks like.
    Wolverine: It looks like you've made squirrel kebabs.
    Deadpool: That's about right, actually.
  • Hilariously mocked by Seanbaby in his "Aquaman SUCKS!" parody comic, in which Aquaman takes off his shirt and starts trying to molest Aqualad... only to be caught in the act by Seagull.
  • In one Archie Comics story, Archie's car gets stuck in a lake. He and Betty decide to go to a motel to warm up. They end up in their underwear covered in blankets. When Betty's parents come over they get the idea that they had sex and try to force them to get married.
  • In one issue of Batman post-A Death in the Family, Bruce Wayne is talking to social services worker about Jason Todd when Cassandra Cain shows up in a dressing gown. Given Wayne's reputation and uncooperativeness about Jason and Cassandra being underage, the social worker goes away with the apparent impression that Bruce Wayne is a pedophile who probably abused and murdered his ward. At this point, Cass isn't his ward, so it looks as though Bruce frequently preys on children.
  • In Invincible, Girl Next Door Atom Eve breaks into Mark's room looking for a shoulder (or in this case, lap) to cry on after she catches her boyfriend Rex cheating on her. Cue Mark's mom walking in behind them, seeing a girl's face in her son's crotch, and bringing them both downstairs for a lecture.
  • Two examples from the German comic Lula und Yankee: Yankee just rubs some lotion on a guy's back (it's against back pain), but the artist deliberately drew it to look like gay sex (and the other guy is even moaning!) A similar scene happens later: Yankee's standing there and urging Lula to go on because people could see them, and her answer sounding as if she had something in her mouth — actually, it's just the cap of a magic marker, which she uses to draw their names on the Eiffel Tower.
  • Lunar Girl and Scarlet Sparrow: At one point, the hero duo see a man running away from an old man who's shouting out to him to stop. Lunar Girl tackles the running guy, thinking he stole from the old man. Turns out, the old man was calling out to him because he left his credit card behind.
  • In Megalex, Ram wakes up to find a naked Adamâ sleeping on top of him. She wakes up and angrily tells him to turn around so she can get dressed, and not to get any ideas because "it's not what you think."
  • Robin (1993): After attacking Tim in a needless panic and running into the manor Damian gets knocked down by Alfred before Alfred recognizes him. Tim then runs into the manor fearing Damian plans to kill Alfred and sees Alfred bent over with Damian's arm around him. Alfred was just helping him up but Tim attacks thinking Damian is attacking Alfred.
  • In Spider-Man, Black Panther walks in on Peter Parker sitting with two beautiful Wakandan women wearing nothing but a bikini, who have their fingers in his hair.
    Spider-Man: It's not what it looks like.
    Black Panther: They're not braiding your hair?
    Spider-Man: I guess it is what it looks like.
    • Black Panther seems particularly prone to this trope. In an issue of Fantastic Four when he and Storm are subbing for Reed and Sue, Ben asks Ororo if her hair is weave. Taking offense, she invites him to lift her by her hair to show that it is indeed real. Cue T'Challa walking in on Ben holding his wife by the hair.
    • Back with Peter, an issue of Amazing Spider-Man has MJ return from some time away to find Peter being smooched by his next door neighbour. Peter breaks out the stock line - she's kissing Peter in an attempt to make her ex-boyfriend jealous. Fortunately, MJ's level-headed enough not to immediately assume Peter's cheating on her and takes it in stride.
  • Supergirl:
    • In Supergirl (1972), this happens twice in a single issue when a friend of Linda thinks wrongly that she's flirting with a professor.
    • One time, Superboy and Supergirl have an argument and brawl, only for Wonder Girl (Cassandra Sandsmark) to walk in and assume Superboy is cheating on her and that the two are engaging in foreplay. She attacks Supergirl and loses, but the misunderstanding is cleared up. Cassie doesn't even stop to consider that Superboy is the son/clone of Superman, Supergirl's cousin.
    • Elseworld's Finest: Supergirl & Batgirl: The Joker says this when Batgirl sees him holding a sick Supergirl in his arms. Joker (who has deluded himself into thinking that Batgirl is actually interested in him as opposed to hating him) quickly spouts that it is not what looks like and he was just trying to kill her.
      Joker: This — us — it's not what you think! She means nothing to me! She's just... just the victim!
  • In an issue of The Superior Foes of Spider-Man, The Incredible Hercules walks in on a robbery. After seeing a group of Bound and Gagged hostages, he wonders if he's witnessing a heist, or has simply wandered into a consensual bondage club by mistake.
  • 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.
  • Ultimate Spider-Man:
    • Subverted 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.
    • Subversion at a different part of the trope later on. After Ultimatum, Spidey stops Mysterio from robbing a gold reserve, but when the police arrive, it's just him. He starts off with "Wait, this is not what it looks like!", but they hear him out, and believe him.
  • Wonder Woman (1942): In the Huntress feature in issue #271, Helena hears some shuffling at her door in the middle of the night and opens it to have District Attorney Harry Sims nearly fall into her apartment, since he was leaning against her door. He quickly scrambles to give her an explanation, only for her to cut him off to flirt with him, since while it's the first time readers have been introduced to the character, Helena knows him quite well.
  • Likely the intended result in X-23's famous lesbian scene. Jubilee grabs Laura while both make 'special' facial expressions and pulls her towards herself.
  • 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.

    Comic Strips 

    Films — Animation 
  • In Frozen, Anna's first meeting with Hans ends up with him ending up on top of her in a rowboat:
    Hans: Oh, boy! Uh...
    Anna: This is awkward. Not you're awkward, but just because we're... I'm awkward— you're gorgeous. Wait, what?
  • The Incredibles:
    • When Bob and Lucius save people from a burning building, they do so by breaking through the wall of a nearby jewelry store, setting off the alarm. They also happen to be wearing ski masks to hide their identities, making them seem even more like they're pulling a robbery. Lampshaded by Lucius just before a cop bursts in: "We look like bad guys! Incompetent bad guys!"
    • Later on, Mirage tells Bob his family survived Syndrome's missiles and Bob is so grateful for the news that he gives Mirage a great big hug — and right at that moment, Helen, who fears Bob was having an affair, walks in to rescue him.
  • Incredibles 2: Violet has a panicked look at the start of the film when Tony sees her in her supersuit and tries to explain it away. She does it again later, without knowing that his memory is gone.
  • 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. Cue Shrek jumping up and saying, "Nothing happened!" Shrek trying to explain what happened distracts him long enough for Fiona to pull out the arrow.
  • In The Princess and the Frog, when Naveen is planning to propose to Tiana, he ask Evangeline the star how he'll be able to say to Tiana "I love you". It's at this moment that Ray appears and initially believes that Naveen is pledging his love to Evangelion.
    Ray: Whoa, whoa, whoa, Cap! (His bulb turning red with anger) You makin' goo-goo eyes at my girl?!
  • In Turning Red, Mei tries denying the red panda fur her grandma found is proof of her not abstaining from transforming.
    Mei: It's, uh... It's not mine.

    Jokes 
  • A penguin is out driving in the desert when he hears a pop and his tire goes flat. He manages to pull into a gas station to have the mechanic check it out. As he's waiting, he notices the convenience store is selling some ice cream, and he decides he could do with some good cold ice cream. He goes in and buys his favorite flavor, vanilla, then goes out and sits on the curb to eat it. Being a penguin and lacking opposable thumbs, he has a lot of trouble scooping it out with his flippers, and being in the middle of the desert, the ice cream melts very quickly. Eventually, he's almost completely covered in white, sticky goop. The mechanic comes out at that point, looks at him, and informs him, "Well, looks like you blew a seal." The penguin cries indignantly "It's vanilla ice cream, dammit!"
  • A most sombre cowboy enters a bar, orders several shots and starts gulping them down. The concerned barman inquires if something is wrong. The cowboy replies: "there are times, Bill, when words are useless. This morning I went to the barn to milk the cow, but that lousy creature kept kicking and toppling the bucket over. I got some rope and strapped her legs to the poles, but then it swung its tail and toppled the bucket again, and I was out of rope, so I pulled the belt out of my pants and strapped its tail up. My pants fell down, and right then my wife came into the barn... there are times when words are useless."
  • A man went into a job interview and his eye winked through the whole process. The interviewer said "Look, you are well qualified, but I'm afraid that facial tic will throw off clients." The man replied - "Funny you mention that, because all I have to do is take aspirin and the winking goes away - watch" and the man began dumping out his pockets looking for aspirin. In most of his pockets, however, were condoms. Finally, once a pile of condom packages of every sort piled up on the desk the man found two aspirin, took them, and the wink totally stopped. "Well, that worked," the interviewer admitted, "but why do you have all the condoms? We don't want our clients to think you're a womanizer!" "It's quite simple sir," the guy said, "have you ever walked into a drugstore, winking like crazy, and asked for aspirin?"

    Manhua 
  • No Doubt In Us: Exploited by Zhao, who has her flunkies call Prince Jinmin into one of the gardens by claiming his mother, the Dowager Empress, is there and wants to talk to him, forcing his brother Jinyun (presently in his wife Xu Yu's body) to go and retrieve him. They then get the Dowager Empress to walk through the garden, and she sees the two talking, and is led to believe they're having an affair while Xu Yu's away. Only forethought on Jinyun's part saves him from being summarily executed for treason against himself.

    Music 
  • Mocked in the song "Such Horrible Things" by Creature Feature. The song catalogs a list of horrible things done by the narrator at various ages. The chorus?
    But it's not quite what it seems
    (Not quite what he seems)
    Not quite what I seem
    Ah, Hell
    It's exactly what it seems
  • The story behind The Everly Brothers song "Wake Up, Little Susie". The singer is trying to wake up his girlfriend and take her home from the drive-in, continually pointing out that nobody (especially not her parents) is going to be believe that the reason she's coming home six hours after her curfew is because the movie was so boring that they both fell asleep.
    Well, what are we gonna tell your mama?
    What are we gonna tell your pa?
    What are we gonna tell our friends
    When they say "Ooh la la"?
  • The music video for Bon Jovi's "Misunderstood" is the long, protracted tale of a guy trying to explain why he and a girl, both naked, are in his girlfriend's bed.

    Myths & Religion 
  • Invoked by Grainne in The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Grainne. Since Diarmuid refused her on the basis that Finn would almost certainly kill him if he didn't, Grainne placed a geas on him that forced him into leaving the house with her while Finn and the others are sleeping - he didn't have to elope with his lord's fiance, but given that Finn was going to assume that he did regardless, he might as well.
  • In one Egyptian myth, Osiris' coffin is built into a pillar in a noblewoman's house. To get close to him, Isis takes human form and gets a job as a nursemaid to the noblewoman's son, who she becomes fond of. One day, the noblewoman walks in on her son on top of a fire, surrounded by Isis' scorpions. Naturally, she yanks him off... but the fire was actually part of a rite to make him immortal, and as a result, he would now age and die like any other human.

    Pro Wrestling 
  • John Cena tried this when a grateful Eve Torres kissed him for saving her from Kane and Zack Ryder walked in and was enraged.
  • Vince McMahon walked in on Vickie Guerrero, Hornswoggle, and Great Khali in an "interesting" position in 2012.
  • 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...
    • Given a Call-Back of sorts during RAW's 1000th episode, with Trish teaching Trips some moves from her yoga videos, just as the rest of D-Generation X walked in. Cue awkwardness.

    Radio 
  • Adventures in Odyssey: Played straight in "Love Is In The Air". Connie is teaching Eugene how to give Katrina an "It's good to see you" hug when she returns, only for Katrina to walk in right as they are doing so. Hilarity and embarrassment ensue.
    Eugene: It wasn't what it looked like!
    Katrina: It looked like two people hugging.
    Eugene: Well, that's because it was.
  • Big Finish Doctor Who: Used to humorous extent in the Fifth Doctor audio Iterations of I; the Doctor and his companion Adric have just discovered the dead body of the member of a cult when they themselves are discovered by a woman searching for the cult, the Doctor protesting that he always says that this isn't what it looks like, but in this case it doesn't even look like what it looks like as the body has clearly been dead for months rather than someone who only just died.
  • Inverted in one episode of Hamish and Dougal, when Hamish and Dougal are in the lavatory together. Mrs. Naughtie knocks on the door.
    Hamish: Don't worry, Mrs. Naughtie, it's not what it seems!
    Mrs. Naughtie: ...You mean it isn't a completely innocent misunderstanding?
  • In May 2022 one-off John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme, the first sketch has John's character confronted by his husband with evidence he's having an affair. He says it's not what it looks like, and his husband asks if he can come up with anything more original. He explains that he can't, because it looks like he's having an affair, and he's not, so it is, in fact, not what it looks like.

    Roleplay 
  • AJCO: AJ visits Egg in her room to inform her of the fact that she will be punished for Nights' prior misbehavior, only to see that the bed has been converted into a double and Kube is hiding in the corner looking awkward. They had been sleeping together, but only in the most innocent sense of the phrase.
    <Facilitator A_J> Really now, Prosecutor.
    <Facilitator A_J> I hardly thought you the sort.
  • In The Dao of the Awakened, one encounter has Hua Yin finding Song Chyou crying with a male disciple standing in front of her. It turns out the guy himself has just found her like that, and the reason she was crying was homesickness combined with feeling out of place.
  • Said word for word in Darwin's Soldiers by a system admin after Montgomery walks in on him trying to delete a bunch of porn popups on his computer. A virus had hit his computer.
  • Dawn of a New Age: Oldport Blues:
    • Nadine comes across Benedict and Hyeon while they're in a compromising position in front of the school. Hyeon was actually just trying to get Benedict to calm down during his superpower-induced freak out. She makes fun of them for looking like a couple, getting an embarrassed 'Shut up' in response.
    • Barbra tries to convince Jacob to help her and the other kids in their search for the missing Benjy. Jacob, however, misconstrues her intent and is lead to believe that she's trying to blackmail him.
    • Upon coming across Ciro and Michal in the school, Lenore asks them about the smoke snakes that gave them their powers the previous night. Vanessa, a non-powered student, overhears this, and misconstrues it as an admission that Lenore and Ciro were smoking weed. An attempted clarification falls flat, as she's too giddy at the thought of Ciro breaking the rules to listen to them.

    Theatre 
  • During Evil Dead: The Musical, Jake, Ed and Annie walk in to find Ash sawing Shelly's head off with a chainsaw. Coupled with everything else that's happened, and the room covered in blood and gore, all Ash can say to them is "this isn't as bad as it looks." Smash to Black for intermission.
  • 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).
  • In The Producers, Leo wants to turn Max and himself in and hand their doctored record books over to the police. Max is kneeling, clutching the books to his chest and refusing to let go...while Leo stands behind him, arms wrapped around him, trying to wrestle the books away, all the while shouting "GIVE IT TO ME!" Then the Camp Gay director and his common-law assistant walk in...
    "Now that's what I call celebrating!"
  • Older Than Steam: Commonly occurs, usually with the genders reversed, in William Shakespeare plays.
  • The painter Cavaradossi, fiancé of the title character from the opera Tosca begins the opera by helping hide an escaped political prisoner and old friend. Tosca realises he's hiding something and, after finding a misplaced fan in the church were Cavaradossi is working, assumes he is cheating on her. Much drama, blood and death ensues.

    Video Games 
  • Can be seen in A Dance with Rogues if the Princess begins a romance with Bran. In one of the first stages of the romance, she's given the option to suggest they both cuddle in the same sleeping bag to keep warm, since at this point the party's mostly camping in underground caves and the Princess is starting to feel very cold. Nothing happens between them, as even if the Princess attempts to get too intimate with him at this stage, he'll refuse. In the next morning, Bran's sister Norah will see them like this and immediately grin at Bran, who will briefly explain the situation and tell her it's not what she thinks. Norah won't believe him, especially if the Princess decided to sleep naked.
  • 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 part of a growing conspiracy, Nero is naturally forced to beat him into submission. Trouble arises when said love interest, Kyrie, stumbles onto 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 can try to 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. It's not certain if she can tell who the bad guy is at that point.
  • Dragon Age: Origins:
    • When the PC gets busted with Jowan and Lily coming out of the repository by Greagor in the "Mage Origin" story quest, one of the responses available is "This is not what it looks like."
    • Whilst rescuing Queen Anora, who's been kidnapped, the player is caught by Ser Cauthrien, who has come to arrest the Warden for murdering their way through Arl Howe's estate. They attempt to explain the situation and point out the disguised Queen Anora beside them, however Anora decides to claim that the Warden was the one attempting to kidnap her! The Warden can decide to either fight their way out or surrender peacefully, but not before having the option to call Anora a "traitorous bitch" first! The option to say "Uh oh!" is also available.
    • In Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening, Anders first appears in the middle of blasting a darkspawn, in a room full of corpses that include his Templar guards. He then notices the approaching PC. "Er... I didn't do it."
  • If the Chosen One of Fallout 2 has sex with either Miria or Davin, when they are caught, they can insist that it isn't what it looks like — they're actually a doctor. Which is true. You need 50% (pretty good) doctor skill to pull this off, so you're pretty much a doctor. You're still sleeping with him/her, however.
  • In Hades, if Zagreus gets his relationship with Thanatos up that he can use him as Summon Magic, he'll drop this line if he's used against the titular god himself.
    Thanatos: Lord, this isn't what it looks like!
    Hades: Return to your post, Thanatos!
  • Hakuouki Zuisoroku:
    • In Hijikata's route, when Chizuru's brief stint of posing as a maiko to eavesdrop at Sumiya ends in chaos, Hijikata grabs her and makes a run for it. They're stopped at the front gate by a well-meaning bystander who takes Chizuru for the geisha she's dressed as and assumes that Hijikata is either kidnapping her or trying to elope without resolving her debt. Trying to explain goes nowhere fast; Hijikata loses his temper and ends up loudly announcing that he's the vice-commander of The Shinsengumi and Chizuru is under his protection. It apparently takes him a while afterwards to live down the rumors.
    • At one point Harada playfully flirts with Chizuru in public, forgetting that to the eyes of outsiders it looks like she's a boy and creating some unintended impressions about his preferences.
  • The final mission of Kindergarten has the player sneaking into the bathroom with Lily so they can put their plan to rescue Lily's brother from the principal into action. On their way there, the hall monitor catches them and assumes they're up to some, ahem, age-inappropriate activities.
  • Life Is Strange 2: Daniel accidentally spills fake blood on their neighbor, then Sean gets into a fistfight with him and causes him to collapse on a rock, making the neighbor look a lot worse than he really is. When a cop sees them fighting and responds, he assumes the worst and things quickly get out of hand.
  • Played for Drama in Mass Effect 3. During a terrorist attack orchestrated by a group Commander Shepard acknowledged working with in the past, Shepard bursts through a door with their gun raised on Councilor Udina, the human representative in the galactic government. It's actually because Udina is working with Cerberus to orchestrate the attack. If Shepard and the Virmire survivor haven't repaired their relationship to the point where Shepard can convince him/her of what's really going on, Shepard or a squadmate will have to kill them.
  • Averted in Mogeko Castle. Yonaka returns home to find her parents horribly murdered and her brother holding a knife. He simply says "That's right... It's exactly what you think".
  • Persona:
    • Persona 3:
      • Fuuka, nervous about wearing a swimsuit during her upcoming trip to the beach, decides to try a (noisy) ab-toning machine... which tickles horribly and won't come off. Mitsuru naturally knocks on the door to ask a favor, but stops when she hears a loud vibrating noise and Fuuka giggling.
        Fuuka: C-c-coming...!
        Mitsuru: Oh, um, never mind. C-carry on.
      • In P3P, Aigis's introduction (also at the beach) comes out completely different for the female protagonist. After rebuffing Junpei and Akihiko, who were hitting on her, they soon find her... tightly hugging the protagonist and gushing about how happy she is to find her.
      • The predicament when the guys get caught in the Kyoto hot springs by the women, Akihiko tries to explain that it's a misunderstanding. Mitsuru doesn't let him finish.
        Mitsuru: Silence! I'm going to execute you all!
    • A meta-example — One FAQ for Persona 4 laid the games conversation choices out with only the lead in question. The last question for Yukiko's girlfriend social link, the point where they're in an intimate relationship, was given solely as "So... the couch, or the futon?". Play through it, and they're just talking about sitting.
    • In Persona 5, the Phantom Thieves' first encounter with Yusuke is mistaking him for stalking and attempting to accost Ann. But actually, he was trying to approach her so she could model for his artwork.
  • World of Warcraft: Legion: In a Suramar questline, you and the Nightfallen Arcanist Valtrois travel to Azsuna to redirect energy from ley lines to feed mana-starved refugees. Immediately upon arrival, you're accosted by Stellagosa of the Blue Dragonflight, who isn't about to let Nightfallen once again try to tap into the ley lines. She only refrains from attacking Valtrois because of your presence. Valtrois initially tries to claim this trope, only to realize mid-sentence that, in fact, it's exactly what it looks like. Fortunately, Stellagosa is reasonable and eventually agrees to help your cause.
  • In Yakuza 2, Date is Caught on Tape shooting the impostor Kazuki, with this being used to implicate him on murder charges and get the Tokyo police pulled out of their investigation into the Millennium Tower bombing. However, the impostor shooting Kawara and Kazuki first is not caught on tape, which would have justified Date's actions as self-defense, nor is the fact that the victim actually survived this and then was killed when Sayama pulled a Big Damn Heroes.

    Visual Novels 
  • Ace Attorney: A frequent reason for why the police arrest the wrong suspect; said suspect got unlucky, touched a murder weapon, or got framed, and ended up looking guilty.
    • The first instance of this is the picture of Will Powers in his Steel Samurai costume entering the studio to kill Jack Hammer. That's actually Jack Hammer in the costume, trying to frame Will Powers for his own murder attempt on Dee Vasquez.
    • The opening cutscene of the fourth case shows a man saying he'll have his revenge, a gun firing, and your rival Edgeworth holding the gun. Yanni Yogi held the weapon and fired at Edgeworth (though he deliberately missed), and Edgeworth picked up the gun afterwards.
    • Lana Skye is the defendant of case 1-5 because Angel Starr saw her stab the victim in a parking lot. The victim was already dead; Lana was just removing the knife used from his corpse and replacing it with a different one that would be less incriminating for the real killer.
    • Case 2-2 involves Maya and the victim going into a locked room, a shot being fired, and when the room is opened, Maya is standing over the victim holding a gun. The person with the gun wasn't Maya, it was the killer in her clothes and a wig. The real Maya was unconscious in a trunk behind a screen.
    • Max Galactica gets arrested because a witness saw him (or at least his silhouette) leave the scene of the crime. It was the murder weapon- a life-sized bust of Max- with Max's cloak caught on it.
    • An entire crime scene is Not What It Looks Like in 2-4; the victim at first appears to have been stabbed, but he was actually strangled to death and the stabbing occurred post-mortem.
    • Inverted in case 3-2; Ron DeLite spends most of the trial trying to convince everyone that his Mask DeMasque costume and memorabilia is exactly what it looks like and he really is a phantom thief, but nobody believes him. The true murderer also tried to set this up by hitting an alarm after killing the victim and sticking Ron in the room so that a guard would investigate, see Ron with the victim's corpse, and arrest him. Unfortunately for him, the guard that day was Larry Butz and he was slacking off.
    • In Dual Destinies, the reason Apollo suspects Athena is because his Perception can tell that she recognized case 4's murder weapon despite her claims to the contrary. Turns out, she recognized the knife because she used it to stab the real killer years ago, and he killed Solomon Starbuck with that same knife to frame her, and the reason she said she didn't was because she had Trauma-Induced Amnesia about the incident and her reaction was entirely unconscious.
    • A plot point in Spirit of Justice is Phoenix proving that the Divination Seances that form the basis of Khura'in's legal system can fall into this trope and thus cause wrongful convictions. The prevailing belief is that Divination Seances are perfect evidence because it is an accurate vision of what the deceased last saw, but Phoenix proves that it can be misinterpreted or manipulated. The reason case 3 happens is that the victim, who was familiar with how divination seances worked, committed suicide in such a way that his last sights made it look like Maya killed him. An important element of Rayfa's character development is learning to treat Divination Seances like any other piece of evidence and report what she saw, not what she thinks happened.
    • Happens often in The Great Ace Attorney.
      • Protagonist Ryunosuke in Case 1-1 becomes the prime suspect of a man killed by a gunshot because witnesses saw him holding a gun towards the victim. It turns out Ryunosuke had picked up the gun before the gunshot was fired, intending to return it to the victim who he thought the gun belonged to - the real murderer had killed the victim with a concealed gun.
      • In Case 1-5, an automated photograph shows Gina seemingly threatening and pointing a revolver at the victim. When asked about it later, Gina admits that they were holding a gun at the time the photo was taken but had no intention to actually using it. Windibank was actually cordial to Gina's request to see Iris's manuscript and even told her off for waving her gun around before leading her to the storeroom.
      • In Case 2-1, Rei Membani is found directly after removing a bloody knife out of the murder victim. She thought the blade was poisoned and was trying to stop it from doing more damage to no avail.
      • Witnesses come running into a building when they hear a gunshot in Case 2-5 and see Lord van Zieks alone in a room with a dead boy and holding a gun, leading to their immediate arrest. Lord van Zieks actually did not see Gregson's body in the darkened room when he noticed the gun on the ground. By the time the "gunshot" went off, he was startled by the witnesses barging into the room, still holding the gun.
  • 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.
  • C14 Dating: If making the replacement Neanderthal cutout ends up involving Deandre drawing the outline around Melissa, he'll notice she's ticklish and start tickling her while she's lying on the ground, resulting in a double dose:
    • Kyler walks into the room, they realize their activity could easily be mistaken for something much more intimate and Deandre tells Kyler it's not what it looks like. In Deandre's romance route, the bonus scene consists of Deandre getting noticed by Kyler while he's hugging Melissa from behind, Kyler assuming it's "not what it looks like" once again and Deandre telling him it actually is what it looks like.
    • When Shoji returns to finish the cutout after taking a long time with his call, he turns to have returned earlier, but gotten the impression that Melissa and Deandre were in the middle of something, causing him to promptly leave again.
  • In Collar × Malice, in Enomoto's route, a drunk Enomoto drags Ichika into his bed and hugs her tightly before falling asleep, leaving Ichika stuck in the bed with him. As she was trying to wiggle out, Okazaki arrives and cheerfully comes to the conclusion that he was interrupting something.
  • In Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, Hajime takes a rest on a hospital bed after some of the students come into contact with an odd fever. After waking up, he sees Mikan on top of him and smothering his body while she's asleep, just as Fuyuhiko happens to check on Hajime.
    Fuyuhiko: H-Hey... what are... you guys doing...?
    Hajime: F-Fuyuhiko!? No... this is... I really hope you didn't get the wrong idea.
    Fuyuhiko: W-Were you guys sleeping together? Y-You dirty rotten bastard! You guys are fuckin' high school students!
  • Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony: Shuichi uses this trope by name when Maki runs into him as he exits the girls' bathroom. His situation isn't helped by Himiko emerging right behind him. It turns out to be a Subverted Trope when Maki tells him she trusts him enough to know that he had a good reason for being in there. He was actually investigating a secret passageway hidden in the bathroom's storage closet.
  • An odd version of this occurs in Higurashi: When They Cry, because what it looks like is not sex, but murder. Keiichi finds Rika's body being pecked by crows, and in the process of fending them off, he drops his axe into her blood, covering it with her blood and his fingerprints, though in this case it really isn't as it seems. He ends up Mistaken for Murderer by Satoko.
  • Little Busters!:
    • In Mio's route, she ends up running away from Riki, who chases after her, and when she stumbles, they fall onto the ground with Riki on top of her, one hand on her chest. Of course, soon afterwards Kurugaya comes along and accuses Riki of being a pervert. He rushes to explain himself... and she believes him immediately, because after everything she's done to him so far, she'd have known if he was the type to do something like that.
    • The reason Mio was running away in the first place is because Kyousuke was brushing lint off Riki, and she (being a Boys Love fangirl) immediately assumed they were having an intimate moment. Riki is completely clueless to this fact.
    • On Komari's route, she falls fast asleep on the rooftop, leaving her clothing in a state of general disarray. If Riki tries to straighten her clothes up, she (predictably) wakes up while Riki is lifting her shirt, and proceeds to go into hilarious freakout mode, while Riki fervently tries to explain himself.
  • The protagonist of Melody has this response if the title character catches him sleeping with Jade. Predictably, it doesn’t work.
  • In Piofiore: Fated Memories, during Dante's route, Lili was trying to wake up a sleeping Dante on the couch when her cat Carlo jumped at her feet, causing her to fall over onto Dante. When Dante inevitably wakes up, he sees what appears to be Lili leaning over and about to kiss him. She even stammers out the line word for word.
  • In Spirit Hunter: NG, Seiji walks in on Akira undressing in front of Kaoru, and asks with a smirk if he's interrupting something. Akira quickly clarifies that Kaoru wanted to paint symbols on his body to protect him from the vengeful spirits they're up against.
  • In Sunrider 4: The Captain's Return, Kayto Shields overhears the Ambiguously Gay Kryska Stares and the Ambiguously Bi Icari Isidolde moaning suggestively in the cargo hold after he gave Kryska advice on how to deepen their relationship. Given the Homoerotic Subtext between the two women, Kayto jumps to the obvious conclusion and goes to investigate. To his surprise and mild disappointment, however, they're just lifting weights.

    Web Animation 
  • In the Cartoon Hooligans episode "The Rumors About Spider-Man and Deadpool", when Captain America and Iron Man happen upon Spider-Man and Deadpool after Deadpool accidentally removes Spidey's leggings, Spidey frantically says "No, no, no! It's not what it looks like!".
  • In the Chimney Chickens episode Meet the Schemer, Blaze Hanson "borrowed" Buzz's paint to deface Dash O'Donnell's poster, then left a note with Buzz's name to help Buzz find his paint - making it look like Buzz was the one who vandalized the poster. When Buzz finds his paint next to a disapproving Dash, Buzz name-drops this trope.

    Web Original 
  • 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 Bunny Cormick knelt down to get a 3-D model of said privates (for something else Phase is planning). So Bunny's roomie walks in just then. And brings back Phase's girlfriend, among others. It took a while to explain.
  • Cracked mercilessly mocks this trope in number 4 of "21 Phrases Movies Don't Realize Nobody Actually Says".
  • Sibylline Sounds: Oreo mentions that he partook in a gathering at the local park where people are being taught how to do cartwheels. While attempting to do one he wound up getting stuck halfway and did a successful handstand instead — but since Oreo is a skunk, everyone in proximity assumed the worst and ran for the hills.

    Web Video 
  • The ProJared scandal was a massive case of this. For starters, many facts were taken completely out of context and distortednote , and in one case an accuser remembered public events that never actually happenednote . The two people who claimed they'd been harassed by him while underage were actively manipulating evidence together and had a history of seeking attention, and even the affair was a result of a marriage that rivaled that of the Smiths. note  The whole thing was debunked by Jared in a 40-minute video where he presents very strong evidence that disproves the claims, and calls out the press for never asking for his side of the story.
  • This YouTube video is a compilation of Reddit stories of people answering the question "What's your worst 'I know this looks bad but I can explain'?" One person was seen by the cops while trying to get into their own home without their keys and nearly mistaken for a burglar. A few art students in human anatomy classes had their naked model pictures mistaken for porn. A guy was zooming in on the part of a picture where a lady's nipples were showing through her shirt not because he was a pervert, but because he was being paid to photoshop them out. Someone stuck in stop-and-go traffic accidentally spilled the custard filling of an éclaire on his crotch, causing a suspicious stain, then it went From Bad to Worse when his attempts to scrub it out with a small splash of his drink resulted in some very questionable-looking actions next to a car of teenage girls.

    Real Life 
  • The Activision Decathlon was an early Sports Game whose gameplay was based on wiggling the joystick back and forth. Players quickly found that an effective way to stabilize the Atari 2600 joystick was to hold it between their thighs. The sight of a room full of young men playing this way inspired some off-color nicknames for the game.
  • An Alford plea is basically this. "I'm entering a guilty plea because I know it looks like I committed the crime, and there's plenty of evidence, but I swear, I didn't really do it."
  • Animals:
    • There are various viral videos of bull elephant seals doing really inappropriate looking things with motor vehicles. They're actually trying to beat up the vehicles.
    • Surprisingly, a really common example of this is when dogs mount other dogs they know — regardless of the gender of either dog — in a way that humans usually assume is at least an attempt to have sex. Dogs, weirdly enough, don't actually mate in "doggy-style" — if the one on top actually penetrates the other, they twist round until they're rear-to-rear. The motivation for climbing on another dog's back without seemingly intending to enter him/her is obscure, but seems to be an expression of superior status.
    • The mounting thing can also be applied to rabbits, rats, or other animals. Like the dogs example, people might guess that they're trying to get busy, when, really, they're asserting dominance.
    • Another animal example is rattlesnakes. Since they're snakes, and have no legs, male rattlesnakes fight by wrapping their tails around each other and butting heads. When people see them, they frequently assume the snakes are mating, not fighting. (A mated pair of snakes are entwined, but lie on the ground; a fighting pair usually rear up.)

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Peeping Bubbie

Flapjack catches Bubbie spying on Peppermint Larry, who is having marital difficulties with Candy Wife.

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