Would you believe we're knitting each other's hair?
Two characters are conspiring to deceive a third, but they haven't worked out their story in advance. When questioned, they blurt out answers in unison, which naturally are different answers, requiring further lies to explain how both blurted answers can be true.
For added comedy, the characters may then swap answers, each one trying to change his own answer to match his conspirator's, or their excuses may start blending together.
Compare Cover Identity Anomaly. Contrast Seamless Spontaneous Lie.
Examples:
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Advertising
- In a commercial for Ace Hardware, where the ad claims that your local Ace Hardware storekeeper is like a friend, the shopkeeper is serving the customer, not from his store, but from the ample hardware supply located in the kitchen of the shopkeeper's home (including a full selection of wrenches and even a wood mounted full-size p-trap on the island in the middle of the kitchen!) The shopkeeper is interrupted in the middle of the demo by his wife, who walks into the kitchen to get something out of the refrigerator and asks why the other guy is there. Rather than admit that he's there because he dropped his wedding ring in the sink and has to get the tools and knowledge to remove the p-trap to retrieve it, both of them simultaneously lie and give a different reason. Lampshaded by the wife.
That's not suspicious at all.
- When the New Zealand Police made a recruitment video, they had a guest appearance from Officers Minogue and O'Leary
Passerby: Do you have a paranomal division?
Minogue/O'Leary: Yes./No.
O'Leary (looking at Minogue): No.
Comic Books
- From a comic with the Beagle Boys, where they try to rob a Lost and found:
Beagle Boy #1: I have lost my umbrella.
Clerk: What color was it?
Beagle Boy #2: Black!
Beagle Boy #3: Pink!
Beagle Boy #1: Er - pink with black dots. - In the third issue of a Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy comic series, there is a scene where Harley and Ivy show up at a movie studio meeting.
Studio Exec: Who are you?
Harley/Ivy: Extras/Stunt Girls.
Harley/Ivy: Stunt Girls/Extras.
Harley: The heck with it! - In Kyle & Yost's New X-Men, Prodigy dies during a mission (he gets better), which his teammates decide to keep secret from his girlfriend. This idea is doomed from the start- she asks each of them what happened to him, and they all mention different minor injuries, if any- but it's really sunk when she asks X-23, who no-one told about the plan. X-23 coldly outlines every gory detail of what Prodigy suffered, which angers Surge even more than if the normal kids had just told her what happened to begin with.
Fan Works
- In Lines Crossed
Ron, unaware that Harry and Hermione are now a couple, interrupts a makeout session.
Ron: I've been waiting down in the Great Hall for ages! What are you doing?
Hermione/Harry: Helping Harry with his Potions homework!/Hermione wanted to read, um, a book!
Harry: We, uh, wanted to read and study for Potions! - In Too Many Travellers Hermione and Neville are caught outside the hospital wing after curfew.
Neville/Hermione: Er, Hermione wasn't feeling very well, so I.../Neville wasn't feeling very well so I...
McGonagall: A word of advice Miss Granger, Mr. Longbottom. Always prepare your excuses in advance; they may not be believed, but they will at least be internally consistent. - Three Black Birds:
Harry: So where's Hermione?
Tom/Ron: Nowhere./The library. - In The Love Guru Harry refuses to use Sirius' list of cheesy pickup lines on the grounds that Ginny wouldn't appreciate them.
Ginny: What won't I appreciate?
Harry/Sirius: Nothing./This old book I found.
Sirius/Harry: Nothing./This old book Sirius found. - Greenhouse Four:
Harry: What are you two snickering about?
Hermione: Ginny was just saying the funniest things about... her brothers... just some innocent stories, really.
Harry: Really? Who about?
Hermione/Ginny: Fred and George—/Ron and Percy— - I See No Difference:
Hermione: I'm... Jane, and this is James.
Leanne: You're siblings?
Hermione/Harry: Yes./No.
Hermione: Uhm, well, we're half-siblings. - In Family is Everything Harry goes out to bury a dead squirrel after cleaning it in the kitchen. When Sally comes near the kitchen, the other boys try to distract her.
Percy: We built a snowman.
Sally: That's good. But it's colder here than it is in New York, so wash your hands and face with hot water right away. Where's Harry?
Percy/DJ: Bathroom./Still outside.
Films — Animation
- In Meet the Robinsons, Wilbur is trying to hide the fact that he stole his dad's time machine and brought Lewis to the future from modern times. When his mom asks if Lewis is a friend from school, they say "Yes" and "No" at the same time. Wilbur manages to salvage it with "Yes and no. Lewis is a new transfer student."
Films — Live-Action
- In The Secret of My Success, Mr. Prescott walks in on Brantley Foster (Michael J. Fox) and Mrs. Prescott in a compromising position. They claim Brantley hit his head. On what? "The ceiling!/The floor!" Which is it? "Both!/Neither!"
- In 9 to 5, when the leading ladies are pulled over, Violet explains that one of them is sick.
Cop: Which one of you is sick?
Dora Lee/Judy: (together) I am!... She is!
Violet: They're both sick. - Happens at the start of Serendipity. The two romantic leads have just met when they both try to grab a pair of gloves off a display stand in a store at Christmas. While they're trying to decide who should get them another man comes in and picks them up. They tell him to stop, saying that the gloves were a very important gift for someone.
Man: Who?
John/Sara: My girlfriend/My boyfriend
John/Sara: Her boyfriend/His girlfriend
Man: Mind straightening that out for me?
Sara: He is, at the present time, my boyfriend
John: but in 18 months...
Sara: ..after the operation... he will be
John: she will be, my girlfriend..... you're not buying this are you?
Man: No, but merry Christmas (gives them the gloves) - From Raising Arizona: "What's the baby's name?" "Hi Junior"/"Ed Junior" "...We've just been calling him Junior."
- Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home has a hilarious example.
Dr. Taylor: You guys like Italian?
* in rapid succession*
Spock: No.
Kirk: Yes.
Spock: No.
Kirk: Yes.
Spock: No.
Kirk: Yes.
Spock: ...no.
Kirk: YES. I love Italian. *turns to Spock* And so do you.
Spock: ...yes. - In Ocean's Twelve, when Tess and several of Danny's accomplices are posing as (pregnant) Julia Roberts and her entourage, Bruce Willis shows up and asks "Julia" why she's not traveling with her usual doctor. Half the group claim Ms. Roberts' real doctor is sick, the other half that he's on vacation; Tess narrowly avoids giving the game away by remarking how lousy it is to get sick when you're on vacation.
- In The Ice Pirates, after the Space Herpie ruins the crew's turkey dinner and escapes into a vent:
Princess Carina: WHAT WAS THAT!?
Jason: Oh, it was a... [mumbles]
Princess Carina: A what!?
Jason: [clearly] Space Herpie.
Princess Carina: How long have you known about this?
Jason: First we've heard of it. [simultaneously] Roscoe: Couple of days.
[they pause]
Jason: Couple of days. Roscoe: First we've heard of it. - In The Birdcage, while addressing their butler under disguise, Armand and Albert end up calling him "Agador" (his real name) and "Spartacus" (his cover name). The two cover it up by stating that his name is "Agador Spartacus" and that he likes to be referred to by his full name.
Literature
- The Boxcar Children: In The Canoe Trip, two criminals posing as forest rangers simultaneously say different colors when asked what their uniforms look like. They temporarily compensate for the gaffe by claiming that they have different uniforms for different seasons.
- Dancing Aztecs: The book features a rare version where the characters actually do have time to come up with a cover story in advance, but still fail to do so. They ring a doorbell to distract the house owners so that one of their relatives can rescue her husband (who got caught breaking and entering). One of the women ringing the doorbell says they are from the League of Women Voters and the other says they are raising funds for cystic fibrosis patients. Then, in a panic, they both switch to the story the other woman is telling. The householders fail to grasp what is happening, but are left utterly confused.
- In the Discworld novel Wyrd Sisters, the titular coven of witches leaves a baby (who is secretly the heir to the throne of Lancre, smuggled out of the palace after the king is murdered by his cousin) in the care of a band of travelling actors. When asked the boy's name, Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg provide separate answers, "Tom" and "John", but settle on "Tomjon".
- This trope is central to the plot of the Book of Daniel and Susannah (biblical apocrypha), making it Older Than Feudalism. Two men are falsely claiming that they saw Susannah committing adultery under a tree. Daniel simply asks them "What kind of tree?"
- In his book They Shoot Canoes, Don't They?, humorist Patrick McManus gives a fictionalized account of his youthful encounter with the local game warden:
"What you boys doin' here?" he demanded finally. We answered simultaneously: "Lookin" for a cow." "Pullin' up thistles." Sneed didn't smile at these contradictory explanations. He was not a fun-loving man.
- In Redwall (1986), Sela and Fangburn tell a phony story to Cluny to cover Redtooth's death at the hands of Constance, but didn't work out all the details:
Cluny: Where was the noise coming from?
Sela/Fangburn: North/West.
Sela: Er, er, it was sort of north-west. - In John Dies at the End Dave and his friends are trying to sneak into a casino disguised as a rock band, but the security guards notice the shotgun hidden under his coat:
John said, "It's not a gun! It's part of our act!" at the exact same moment I said, "I'm a cop! I'm undercover!"
- An unusual version happens in one Judge Dee story. Three monks come in claiming a very valuable statue which they prayed before every day was stolen by the local tyrant the judge just deposed. The judge, smelling a rat, has them out in separate areas of the courtroom, given sheets of paper, and orders each one to draw the statue. One draws a Buddha, one a four-armed deity, and one a mother holding her child.
- In the Callahan's Crosstime Saloon book Callahan's Con, Jake and Zoey have to make up a lie when a bureaucrat asks where their daughter, Erin, is. Being unable to tell the bureaucrat when she is, let alone where, they come up with clashing stories on the spot, repeatedly.
- In Lawrence Block's The Burglar on the Prowl Bernie claims he lied about last night's activities because he was seeing a woman Carolyn disapproves of and she pretends to be indignant in response. Ray hands them each a piece of paper and asks them to write down the woman's name. Subverted when they both answer "Barbara" - which is the woman whose apartment Bernie burgled on the evening in question.
- Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: In the prequel, two human villains try to keep people from going down to a wine cellar where they have several bodies of murder victims hidden, and simultaneously say that no one can go there because the cellar is flooded and the roof caved in. Even then, they might have gotten away with it in the panic (there are zombies besieging the place) if not for a suspicious servant calling out the lie.
Live-Action TV
- On My Brother and Me:
Alfy: Where did you go?
Goo and Melanie: [in unison] To the movies/mall.
Melanie: To the movies AT the mall.- Melanie and her Abhorrent Admirer (who also happens to be her brother's best friend) were pretending to be dating in order to cover up that they were planning a surprise birthday party for Alfy.
- A favorite with the kids of The Brady Bunch.
Greg: I heard about this one newspaper that printed a million copies of page nine right on top of page eight and left page nine blank.
Marcia: I heard about that too.
Mike: Really? What paper was that?
Greg: The Boston Times.
Marcia: (simultaneous) The Chicago Post.
(They glance at each other)
Greg: I mean, The Chicago Post.
Marcia: (simultaneous) I mean, The Boston Times. - UK soap opera Brookside played this in an infamous storyline where abusive Trevor Jordache is murdered by his wife Mandy and daughter Beth, whom he had terrorised for years. When his younger daughter Rachel comes home unexpectedly and asks where he is, Mandy says "Asleep" and Beth says "Out" in unison. Beth quickly covers by pretending she said "out of it" and that he's sleeping off a drinking binge.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
- In "Becoming, Part 2", Buffy and Spike head back to her house to talk, but are waylaid by Joyce pulling up in the driveway. Buffy gives Spike an expressive "don't say anything in front of my mother" eye roll. "What, your mom doesn't know?" Spike asides. Know what?
Buffy: That I'm, uh... [stammering] in a band. A rock band. With Spike here.
Spike: Right. She plays the, the triangle—
Buffy: Drums.
Spike: —Drums, yeah, she's, uh, hell on the old skins, y'know.
Joyce: [unconvinced] Hmm. And, uh, what do you do?
Spike: [beat] well, I sing. - Played with in "Killed By Death". Xander, Willow, and Cordy take an unconscious Buffy into the Hospital Emergency room (oddly, none of these are lies, just not the whole story).
Intern: What happened?
Willow: The flu.
Xander: She fell.
Cordy: She fainted.
Xander: The flu, fainted and fell. She's sick, make it better!
- In "Becoming, Part 2", Buffy and Spike head back to her house to talk, but are waylaid by Joyce pulling up in the driveway. Buffy gives Spike an expressive "don't say anything in front of my mother" eye roll. "What, your mom doesn't know?" Spike asides. Know what?
- In The Class (2006), Yonk finds out that Nicole and Duncan dated in high school.
Yonk: So, how long did you guys go out?
Mrs. Carmello: Three years. / Nicole: Two weeks. / Duncan: Five months.
Yonk: How's that?
Nicole: Uh, three years, five months, and two weeks, thanks to everyone who contributed to that. - Doctor Who: Distilled to its purest essence in "Vincent and the Doctor":
Vincent van Gogh: [to Amy] I take it from your accent that you're from Holland, like me?
The Doctor: / Amy: Yes. / No.
The Doctor: She means yes.- This is a nod at both Vincent and Amy being played by Scottish actors.
- In Eureka, Carter and Allison do this when they enter a room right after having spent the night together.
Fargo: Where have you two been?
Carter / Allison: Sleeping. / Working.
Carter: Uh... people... work better... when having slept.
Jo: Okay... - In the final episode of Fawlty Towers, Basil tries to justify to two customers why another customer had just been given veal when Basil has just said that the veal is off. He claims that the veal is "veal substitute".
Basil: It got held up in the boat on the way over from...
Polly: Japan.
Basil: Norway. It's a sort of Japo-Scandinavian imitation of the real substitute and I'm afraid that's the last slice anyway. - Beautifully averted in Frasier's fourth-season premiere. Everyone has been telling a bunch of outrageous lies to Daphne's ex-BF Clive (It Makes Sense in Context. well, a little). When he asks the dog's name, everyone looks tensely at one another for a moment, and then in unison they say the dog's actual name, Eddie. Because for the first time that day, it's a fact they didn't have to lie about.
- Friends:
- In the episode "The One with the Rumor", Monica asks Phoebe and Chandler who won the football game neither one of them was really watching. At the same time, Phoebe says "Green Bay" while Chandler says "Detroit". Phoebe then explains that "Detroit technically won, but it was a moral victory for the Green Bay...Mermen."
- Subverted in another episode: Rachel and Phoebe conspire to leave Joey alone with a girl they want him to date. Joey sees through the ruse and tries to catch them in the lie by asking several follow-up questions. However, Rachel and Phoebe have worked out their story, and answer several successive questions in perfect unison. Of course, this doesn't make it any more convincing, because it looks like they've been rehearsing this.
- Not quite fibbing, but one episode of Full House found Joey and Jesse fighting over a girl, with Danny attempting to defuse the situation by pointing out that they don't even know this girl very well.
Danny: What color are her eyes?
Jesse/Joey: Green/Blue. [unsurely] Blue/Green? Kind of a greenish blue... - Invoked and then subverted in Game of Thrones. Catelyn Stark arranges a secret Prisoner Exchange to send the captured Master Swordsman Jaime Lannister back to his family in exchange for both of her daughters, guarded only by the swordswoman Brienne of Tarth. When Brienne runs across a few Stark soldiers who recognize Jaime and intend to recapture him, she tries to claim he's merely a thief that she's taking to the local authorities. The suspicious leader of the soldiers replies with the following:
Soldier: I've a question for you both, and I want you both to answer it at the same time. I count to three, you both answer. (Points to Jaime) What's his name? One... two... three... (Jaime and Brienne look at each other in dismay because they hadn't thought of an alias for Jaime... then Brienne kills all three soldiers)
- The title character of House discovers that the elderly couple he's been giving relationship advice are actually having an affair when he asks them how long they've been married and they give different answers—the lengths, one assumes, of their respective marriages.
- Done in Last of the Summer Wine:
Pearl: So what were you talking about?
Clegg: Philosophy / Howard: Football!
(beat)
Howard: ...Football and philosophy. - A M*A*S*H episode has Col. Potter pressing Hawkeye and BJ for details after his wife writes them (about a surprise mortgage-burning party she wants them to throw for him):
Potter: Answer me this: Does (the surprise) have anything to do with where I'm going to be living out my retirement years?
Hawkeye / BJ: No. / Yes.
Potter: You boys want to confer for a bit and work out one lie between you?
BJ: No, actually, we can stand by either lie. - The Murder, She Wrote episode "Mr. Penroy's Vacation" has a dead body turning up in the flowerbed of two slightly dotty old ladies who are hilariously bad liars. This comes up a couple of times, for instance when Jessica mentions rumours he proposed to one of them, and one says how surprising it was while the other says they don't know what she's talking about.
- Mystery Science Theater 3000: At the ending segment of The Beatniks, Joel reads a letter from a young boy who says his use of the word "dickweed" (heard on the show) got him in trouble, and asks if it's a swear word. He and Servo quickly reply "Yes!No!/No!Yes!"
- A variant appears in the season five finale of NCIS when Vance asks Tony and Ziva about the events of the episode thus far. Tony lies but Ziva doesn't, creating the usual effect of the trope:
Director Vance: Did you know Mike Franks was involved in this?
Tony / Ziva: No. / Yes.
Director Vance: Want to take a moment to get your stories straight?
Tony / Ziva: Yes. / No.- They answer the final question, about whose side they are on, in perfect unison. "Gibbs." Awww.
- In Orphan Black, Vic shows up at Allison and Donnie's house while they're in the middle of burying Dr. Leekie's corpse in their garage.
Vic: What's up with your garage?
Donnie / Allison: Oil change. / Renovating. - Our Miss Brooks:
- In "Trial By Jury", Miss Brooks, Mr. Boynton, Walter Denton and Bones Snodgrass play possum with multiple fake illnesses. While the other three try to convince Mr. Conklin they've all come down with colds at the same time, Bones invents exotic diseases like "hardening of the arterioles".
- An episode of Porridge, in which the cellmates have to explain a bottle of pills found in their cell.
Godber: They're Fletch's. They're for his...
Fletcher/Godber: ...nerves/...indigestion.
Fletcher/Godber ...indigestion/...nerves.
Fletcher: I get this nervous indigestion. And sometimes vice versa.
- In the Small Wonder episode "Vicki's Adoption", Mrs. Fernwald asks Ted and Joan how Vicki's natural parents died. "A train crash!/A plane crash! A plane crashed on top of a train."
- Subverted in Spaced where the two main characters, in order to rent a flat, pretend to be in a relationship. When first asked how long they've been together, they answer to the day, having memorised it beforehand. However, when asked again two days later, they give the exact same answer. Oops.
- Even more hilarious when they try to weasel out of the mistake by claiming that one of them goes by when they first had sex, and the other goes by when they first kissed, causing an unusually sharp Brian to ask:
- An episode of Spin City has Carter and Stuart trying to convince Paul the apartment for sale across the hall from them has already been taken so he won't buy it.
Paul: Who took it?
Carter: An old white man./ Stuart: A young black woman.
Carter: It was a... young old black white man woman.- What? Not even a 'and they're very happy together'?
- Star Trek: The Next Generation: In "Time's Arrow: Part I", after Data's head has been found in an abandoned 19th century mine on Earth, Data notices that the rest of the crew seems awkward around him. He says to Riker and Troi:
Data: I am perceiving an apparent change in the way that others act toward me. For example, people abruptly end their conversations when I appear... as you did when the turbolift doors opened. Is this an accurate observation?
Troi / Riker: Yes. / Not at all. - Star Trek: Voyager: In "Alter Ego", when Harry falls in love with a holodeck character, he goes to Tuvok to try to learn how to suppress his emotions. Part of Tuvok's teaching involves meeting the character on the holodeck together. She asks them:
Marayna: Are you two friends?
Tuvok / Harry: No. / Yes.- While the actions fit the trope to a T, it is unclear on whether this counts as "fibbing" though. We are left unsure whether either or both of them are actually lying, or whether they simply have different opinions on the status of their relationship to each other.
- On Supergirl (2015), Cat asks how Kara, Winn, and James know Barry Allen. They all simultaneously say that he's their cousin. The end of the episode reveals that Cat figured out that Barry is the Flash pretty quickly. And yet she has trouble putting two and two together and figure out that Kara is Supergirl. Subverted later, when it's revealed she knew.
- Averted on That '70s Show, when Eric and Hyde gave the same answer to Kelso's question in unison through luck, despite not having planned it. They almost blow it anyway by turning to each other with surprised delight when they realize what just happened.
- In an episode of Zoey 101, Trisha is dating Chase against his will. To get out of it, he puts on an act for her that depicts Zoey as his girlfriend. When questioned about it, they usually agree on everything. Until...
Trisha: How long have you two been going out?
Chase/Zoey: A year./Six months.
Chase: A year and six months. Eighteen months, really.
Mythology and Religion
- In the Book of Daniel and Susannah from The Bible, Daniel sees through an attempt to frame Susannah by questioning the purported witnesses separately and catching them out when their stories don't match, making this trope Older Than Dirt.
Radio
- In one episode of Absolute Power (BBC), Charles has supplied Prentiss McCabe's newest client with an entirely fictional tragic background, including being raised by an abusive single mother in a tower block. (She was actually raised by two loving parents in a bungalow.)
Interviewer: What happened to your father?
Toggle/ Charles: He died./He walked out.
Toggle: He walked out, then died. He fell off the tower bungalow. It was ironic, really.
Theatre
- The Neil Simon farce Rumors, when the characters try to explain a gunshot.
- In "A Healthy, Normal American Boy" from the musical Bye Bye Birdie, Albert and Rose simultaneously explain how Conrad Birdie started singing. They don't agree on the biographical details, but they do rhyme, and a very nice Counterpoint Duet ensues.
- A certain Norwegian theater piece featured the main character (a man who was swindling money by faking to host a whole bunch of crippled people) and his friend (the only real apartment renter) trying to cover up the scheme from several sudden guests. They often ended up having to answer for the other's lies.
Tax inspector: I find it weird that a deaf piano maker can understand me so well.
Norman (posing as the piano maker and now suddenly "deaf"): Sorry, did you say something?
Mr. Brown: He reads lips. It works fine as long as you remember to look directly at him.
Tax inspector: He understood me perfectly well through the living room door.
Mr. Brown: (Winces) - Blood Brothers has Mickey and Eddie do this when they intend to go and see Nymphomaniac Nights and Swedish Au Pairs at the cinema. It somewhat falls apart when they learn that Mrs. Johnstone has already passed the cinema and seen that it's on, and not the Dr. Zhivago/Magnificent Seven double bill they end up claiming it is.
- Hello, Dolly!:
- When Irene asks Cornelius and Barnaby what they're doing in her ladies' hat shop, they give simultaneous and conflicting accounts of their desire to buy ladies' hats.
- When Irene and Dolly are attempting to persuade Vandergelder that Cornelius is secretly from a famous family:
Dolly: He's one of the Hackls. They built the canal.
Vandergelder: What canal?
Dolly: The Erie! / Irene: The Panama!
Dolly: Both.
- In The Addams Family, Gomez, Wednesday, and Lucas all give different answers when Morticia asks what they're talking about, because they don't want to tell her that Wednesday and Lucas are engaged.
Video Games
- In The Secret of Monkey Island, if Guybrush asks the three Men of Low Moral Fibre "What's in the keg?", the one on the keg and the tall one reply:
Keg/Tall: Rum./Jam.
Keg/Tall: Jam./Rum.
Keg: Er, rum and jam, it's an old pirate favourite. Everybody knows that.- Subverted in the third chapter of Tales of Monkey Island, where Coronado De Cava tries this on Guybrush and Morgan (who are pretending to be a honeymooning couple). Their answers turn out similar enough that he believes them.
Web Animation
- In Teen Girl Squad issue 5 on Homestar Runner, Cheerleader and So and So are trying to impress a pair of "olda boys":
Cheerleader: We're in college!
So and So: [overlapping] We're in eight grade!
Olda Boys: Ha ha ha ha!
Cheerleader looks mad, and kicks So and So offscreen
Strong Bad: [narrating] PUNT!
So and So: Ow! My hopes of reaching first base! - In Season 9 of Red vs. Blue, Church and Tucker break the news to Tex about the poor, deceased Andersmith.
Webcomics
- In 8-Bit Theater, Thief and Red Mage start out out of sync on this lie, but pull it together:
Thief: Ghosts.
Red Mage: Aliens.
Thief: Ghost Aliens.
Red Mage: Who possessed us.
Thief: From space!
Cleric: Well, if there were ghost aliens, they would likely do their possessing from space.
Rogue: Agreed. Their story checks out.
Web Videos
- Done by Linkara and Benzaie when The Nostalgia Critic has Dr. Insano at gunpoint.
NC: You're a part of this, aren't you?
Benzaie: Me or him? [points at Linkara]
NC: Either!
Benzaie: YES! Linkara: NO!
[Benzaie and Linkara look at each other]
Benzaie: NO! Linkara: YES!
NC: You ARE against me... - LoadingReadyRun "The 720th Degree"
Olivia: So... Where are we at? What's the sit rep on the new Xbox?
Shaun: That... is an excellent question.
Cyrus: It's going super well!
Shaun: Poorly.
Cyrus: I mean, not that great.
Shaun: Awesome! It's great.
Olivia: This is not instilling me with confidence.
Western Animation
- In the Jackie Chan Adventures episode "The Warrior Incarnate", the Dark Hand busts into Uncle's shop looking for a terracotta statue on loan there. However, the statue was previously broken and is now totally gone from the shop, as Jade hauled the pieces away without anyone's knowledge. In this case, both Jackie and Uncle are being honest yet neither knows the full story, creating an accidental lie by omission:
Finn: We know you got the statue. Where is it?
Jackie/Uncle: Missing!/Broken!
[Jackie and Uncle look at each other]
Jackie/Uncle: Broken!/Missing!
Chow: You need to get your story straight. - Used in the Danny Phantom episode "Secret Weapons", when Skulker presents a captured Danny to Vlad and Jazz.
Danny and Jazz: What are you doing here?
Vlad: You two know each other?
Danny: Yes!
Jazz: (Overlapping) No!
Danny: No!
Jazz: (Overlapping) Yes!
Danny and Jazz: Sorta! - Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash do this in the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "Party of One", while claiming to be house-sitting for a bear named Harry who's vacationing at the beach. Bonus points: the two make different foreleg gestures when they speak, swapping them when they swap lies. When they blend the two lies together, they both make one gesture with one foreleg and the other with the other foreleg.
Rainbow Dash: Yep, he loves to...
[Dash and Fluttershy stare at each other]
Fluttershy: Collect seashells!
Rainbow Dash: Play beach volleyball!
[beat]
Fluttershy: Play beach volleyball!
Rainbow Dash: Collect seashells!
[beat]
Fluttershy: Collect volleyball!
Rainbow Dash: Play seashells!- It also leads to a Brick Joke a season later when the ponies hide out in Harry's house to avoid Pinkie Pie's clones.
- Rocket Power: The kids find a motorized skateboard and decide to keep it, in secret. When Ray finds out, they say they are just fixing it up for a friend, called...
Otto: Larry.
Reggie: Phillip.
[beat]
Otto: Phillip.
Reggie: Larry.
[beat]
Sam: Larry Phillip. - In one of the [adult swim] Wonder Twins shorts, Zan and Jayna run into old acquaintance Marvin after accidentally walking into the "adult" section of their local video store. He remarks that them being into this stuff is "pretty, uh, progressive, for a brother and sister." They scramble to explain themselves:
Zan: We're on a case!
Jayna: It's for a bachelorette party!
[beat]
Jayna: It's a case involving a bachelorette party!
Zan: The bachelorette party murderer! - In the original pilot episode of Danger Mouse, "The Mystery of the Lost Chord", Danger Mouse and Penfold are sent to Scotland to investigate the mass bagpipe rustling going on, but are given a cover story as journalists investigating the Loch Ness Monster. When they arrive at their hotel, the innkeeper asks what story they're researching.
DM: The Loch Ness Monster! (shows picture of same)
Penfold: [overlapping] The missing bagpipes! [shows picture of bagpipes]
[DM and Penfold look embarrassed]
DM: The missing bagpipes! [shows picture of bagpipes]
Penfold: [overlapping] The Loch Ness Monster! [shows picture of same] - In the Lilo & Stitch: The Series episode "Cannonball", David and Nani are at a hotel pool to relax, which is against the rules since neither one is staying there. When the suspicious hotel owner Mr. Jameson comes over and asks their room number, they give two different numbers, and then combine them, essentially admitting the jig is up.
- In the Little Princess episode "I Don't Want to Kiss Great-Aunty", the Maid, King, Chef, Gardener and Admiral lie about where the Princess is when in actual fact they don't know.
Great-Aunt: So where's my little princess then?
King: Oh, yes, um, she's in the, um, err, uh—
Maid: Uh, bath.
Chef: Kitchen!
Gardener: Cabbage patch.
Admiral: Navy. - The Berenstain Bears: In both the cartoon and book versions of "The Truth", the cubs both tell a wild, inconsistent lie about a bird to explain a lamp getting knocked over (when in actuality they knocked it down with the soccer ball but didn't want to admit they'd been playing with it indoors).
Brother: Well, it was a bird.
Sister: A bird? Yes, a bird.
Brother: Yes, that's right. A big, purple bird with yellow feet.
Sister: Yes, and a red head and green wings and funny little red feathers sticking out of its head.
Mama: This bird, did it make any kind of sound?
Brother: It squawked.
Sister: It whistled.
Brother: Uh, that's right. It squawked and whistled. Then, it flew through the window, zoomed around the room and broke the lamp.
Mama: Well, that was quite an experience.
Cubs: Yeah.
Papa Bear:m Well, hello, there, group, how's the little — holy catfish, what happened to Mama's best lamp?!
Mama: It's quite a story. Why don't you tell it to your papa?
Brother: Well, there was this big, green-headed, yellow bird with purple feet.
Sister: No! A red-headed, purple bird with yellow feet!
Brother: Yeah, yeah, a purple-headed, green bird with red feet and yellow wingtips and green feathers growing out of its—
Sister: No, no, no! A yellow-headed, green bird with red feet and purple wingtips and—
Papa: Just a minute, please, you got me confused. - Carmen Sandiego
- In "The Fishy Doubloon Caper", Player calls in Ivy and Zack that Carmen needed them, unfortunately notifying her previous classmate, La Chevre. As he walks towards them with a giant fish hook asking if this Carmen was Carmen Sandiego, Ivy and Zack switch between saying San Francisco and San Jose.
Ivy/Zack: [simultaneously] Carmen Sanfrancisco. / Carmen Sanjose.
Ivy/Zack: Sanjose? / Sanfrancisco!
Ivy/Zack: Sanfrancisco! / Sanjose!- In "The Himalayan Rescue Caper", Ivy and Zack pose as exterminators in order to delay Player's history exam. When they are asked what the school's infestation consists of, Ivy and Zack switch between saying bees and termites.
Ivy/Zack: [simultaneously] Bees. / Termites.
Ivy/Zack: Termites! / Bees?
Ivy: Uh, termite bees! A new strain of hybrid insect. - American Dad!: In "Chimdale", Roger wins two passes to a spa resort, and he and Francine sneak Hayley inside so they won't be charged for an extra guest. Later, when the three are in a mud bath, the spa detective comes in to join them and they duck Hayley in the mud so he won't see her, at which point she decides she's finally mad enough and blows their cover.
Hayley: You were gonna let me die for $1,800?!Francine/Roger: No. / Yes.Roger: (beat) No.
Real Life
- An anecdote about a teacher trying to catch students Stereo Fibbing goes like this: Three students miss a test and claim it was because they had intended to come in in the same car, but it had a flat tire. The teacher says he'll make up a special version of the test for them. When it comes time for them to take the new test, they see that it has only one question (or, commonly, that there is one page of easy questions which are weighted less heavily and then a single page with the big one on it): "Which tire was it?"
