Not What It Looks Like / Western Animation

Times where a situation is Not What It Looks Like to others in Western Animation.

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• In the first Fionna and Cake episode of Adventure Time, the Ice Queen has disguised herself as Prince Gumball and taken Fionna up to the prince's bedroom, where the real Gumball is trapped in ice on the ceiling. Fionna fights off the Ice Queen but Cake, hearing Fionna shout, rushes upstairs to find Fionna and Gumball standing by his bed, Fionna's dress ripped from the fight. Cake jumps to the wrong conclusion, screams "Don't you touch her!" and attacks him.
• American Dad!:
  • In "I Am the Walrus", Stan makes sure that Steve sees him and Francine having sex, then talks to him afterwards...where he completely destroys this trope, listing off several normal excuses (like the Heimlich Maneuver or "giving her a lying-down hug") and then saying "This was not that."
    I was not helping your mother with a leg cramp, I was not giving her a lying-down hug, I was not helping her look for her contacts. I was plowing, Steve.
  • Played straight in "Rough Trade". Roger and Stan trade lives due to them thinking the other has it easier. This results in Roger accidentally giving Francine a black eye while also begging her to not tell Stan about where she got it from. Due to the fact that Roger's old life consisted solely of getting drunk off his ass, this resulted in the neighbours (and the police) thinking Stan has gone alcoholic and started beating his wife. It gets even worse when Francine does actually walk into a door (giving her a second black eye) and they find pictures of Steve in his underwear, which was completely unrelated to any of this, in the house.
• The Amazing World of Gumball: Parodied in "The Potato"; Darwin finds a string of sausages and a pile of steaks in Mr. Small (a supposed vegetarian)'s desk and confronts him about it. Mr. Small says the trope name, then admits he's been hiding meat in his desk because he can't stop eating it. Gumball lampshades that that was exactly what it looks like.
• Amphibia: In "Anne-sterminator", when the Cloak-Bot makes a move to attack Anne at her house, her parents frantically question why it's pursuing her. The Plantars give a quick answer on who sent it but not a proper saying on why, which led to Anne's mother believing the robot is after Anne for something she irresponsibly had done.
• Aqua Teen Hunger Force: During "Dirtfoot", in a bid to receive popularity, Shake fakes himself being trapped waiting for the news crew to arrive, until the Dirtfoot monster shows up to hug him and the media has Shake Mistaken for Gay despite his protest.
• Batman: The Animated Series:
  • In "Cat Scratch Fever", Selina looks for Isis after the cat leaves through an open window, and witnesses two thugs snatching up cats in a bag. Realizing they probably kidnapped her, she attacks them. Officer Montoya breaks up the commotion, and thinks she was assaulting volunteers for an animal shelter, and arrests her.
  • In "Christmas with the Joker", Batman swings into action when he spots a young man running to catch a middle-aged woman. Before he moves in, the man tells the woman that she left a package behind and he's chasing her to give it back.
• In Big Hero 6: The Series, Globby tries to explain that his arm was possessed by Nega-Globby and wasn't attacking people willingly.
• Parodied in one episode of The Boondocks, where Robert tries to go on a date, only to have to leave his date waiting in the living room to take care of something. When she finally gets impatient and comes upstairs to see what's keeping him, she walks in on Robert, Huey and Riley standing around a stripped-down-to-his-underwear-and-tied-to-a-bed Tom, while Uncle Ruckus is dressed as a priest and whipping him. She immediately comes to the (correct) conclusion that they're all performing an exorcism, but is still offended enough to call off the date anyway.
• Code Lyoko:
  • An early episode has Yumi (really a clone sent by XANA) blatantly coming onto Jérémie, who, for several reasons, isn't interested in her and naturally starts freaking out. Ulrich (who has a crush on Yumi but Cannot Spit It Out) and Odd walk in on what appears to be them about to kiss, complete with her having removed his glasses. Ulrich storms out and Jérémie runs after him, claiming this trope.
  • "XANA's Kiss" features a XANA-sent specter going around pretending to be members of the heroes and kissing people deliberately chosen to stir up trouble. All of those accused claim this trope and when Ulrich, after refusing to believe both Jérémie and Yumi's claims that they didn't kiss the people he saw them kissing, tries it, saying "I did not kiss Sissi!", Jérémie snidely snaps "But I SAW you.", exactly what Ulrich had been saying to both him and Yumi.
• In Dead End: Paranormal Park, this is inverted. In "Night of the Living Kids," Courtney is about to gouge out one of Pugsley's eyes so she can use its powers to return home, only for Barney to walk into the kitchen at that exact moment. After being caught her response is "it's exactly what it looks like."
• The DuckTales (2017) episode "The Ballad of Duke Baloney" has this as the origin of Glomgold's hatred for Scrooge, from back when he was a young shoe shiner named Duke Baloney. Scrooge was about to pay Duke at least a full dollar, since he reached for a bill in a large wad of cash in a gold money clip, only to visibly change his mind and toss him a dime instead. While the audience knows Scrooge was reminded of his younger self and wanted to inspire Duke to take the same path he took with the same symbolic gesture, from Duke's perspective it looked like an obviously rich duck changed his mind about paying him a fair price and shortchanged him instead.
• Dilbert video-tapes himself while he's taking a bath because he ultimately gets all his engineering ideas in the bathtub. During one recording session he drops his soap and is reaching between his legs and says the unfortunate line "It's so small I can hardly feel it." When Dogbert ultimately distributes the tape to Dilbert's coworkers nobody thinks he's talking about soap.
• Ed, Edd n Eddy:
  • In "If It Smells Like an Ed", while the Eds are searching for clues, they come across Jonny tied up and covered in candy right next to an advert sign. Just as the trio begin to untie him, the others happen to walk by and immediately accuse the Eds of getting Jonny roped into another of their scams.
  • "A Fistful of Ed" involves Double D getting mistaken for a bully after several mishaps got outta hand.
• Family Guy:
  • In one gag, Peter's golf ball flies into a china shop where a bull is browsing. The ball bounces around, leaving the bull surrounded by shattered merchandise when the owner bursts in.
    Bull: I know what you're thinking!
  • Defied in the episode "Sibling Rivalry": after being discovered embracing bags of Lois' liposuctioned fat with his pants down, Peter says "Umm..it's exactly what it looks like."
  • In "The Tan Aquatic with Steve Zissou", Stewie 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 Three's Company) enters and hurriedly says he'll come back later, while Brian can do nothing but say this trope (in the uncut version on [adult swim] and the DVD; the FOX version cuts off before Brian can say the line).
  • "Go Stewie Go" had Lois trying to screw Meg's boyfriend, and when Meg catches Lois on top of the boy, Lois lamely says "Um...rape?"
  • When Peter takes Cleveland to audition for the Bachelorette...
    Cleveland: Peter, I can't do this. I'm too nervous. I gotta go.
    Peter: No, no, Cleveland, I'm not going to let you do this. I'll tie you down if I have to. [ties his hands to the chair]
    Cleveland: Peter, this is only making it worse. Oh, God, my claustrophobia is setting in!
    Peter: It's all right, it's all right, it's okay. It's all right. It's the fabric. It's the fabric. It's your clothes. All right, let's get your clothes off. [takes Cleveland's clothes off]
    Cleveland: Peter! Peter, what's wrong with you? I'm naked!
    Peter: Oh, God, you're self-conscious. I'm sorry. Here, you know what? Look, look. Cleveland. Look. See? See? Now you're not alone. You're not alone, Cleveland. [takes his clothes off]
    Cleveland: Let me out of here! I need to get out of here!
    Peter: Cleveland, no. No, you're staying. This, this for your own good. This is for your own good. [presses against Cleveland to keep him in the chair]
    Executive: [opening door] Oh, my God!
    Peter: Hi, we're here for the interview.
  • There's also the episode where OJ Simpson stays with the Griffins. Simpson spills lasagna all over the floor and Lois slips in it and lands in an awkward position, and at that moment Brian walks in and begins screaming, believing that Simpson killed Lois.
• In the Fanboy and Chum Chum episode "Precious Pig", Fanboy is tasked watching the class pet pig, Precious. When Chum Chum brings the rest of the class to check on him, he freezes in mid-air while he is swinging a ninja bat at Precious the moment they show up, making it appear he was about to attack Precious when really he was teaching him karate. This causes him to be punished and sent to the shunning cave.
• Futurama: Happens in the episode "Why Must I Be a Crustacean in Love" with Fry when Zoidberg walks in on both Fry and Edna who is kissing him on her sofa.
  Zoidberg: Edna, I couldn't stand it any longer. I— Gasp! Fry!
  Fry: Dr. Zoidberg, it's not how it looks!
  Zoidberg: Her caviar is on your neck!
• Generator Rex: In "Robo Bobo", Holiday walks into Rex's room to find Rex kneeling on the floor with his face seemingly pressed up against Bobo's butt. Her "i'll come back later" is priceless.
• In G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, when Cobra Commander spots Destro and Baroness making out.
  Destro: S-She had something in her eye, Cobra Commander!
  Cobra Commander: My eye, she did!
• Invincible: This is Rex's excuse when Atom Eve discovers him cheating on her with Dupli-Kate.
• Happens to Johnny Test three times in the episode "Sleepover at Johnny's" with Jillian Vegan as her evil villainous father Dark Vegan catches them. In order to hide Jillian from Susan (who wants to kill Jillian for getting Gil's attention), Johnny pulls Jillian into the closet. Then, when trying to convince Jillian to leave, he spins a bottle as substitute for a coin flip. And finally, after a fall, Jillian ends up smudging her lipstick on Johnny.
• Kaeloo:
  • In Episode 192, Kaeloo spins around repeatedly while trying to show how the Earth rotates and gets dizzy, so she ends up falling on of Mr. Cat, who is asleep. The latter wakes up to find Kaeloo lying on top of him.
  Mr. Cat: [smirking] If this is a new game, I don't know the rules!
  Kaeloo: This is a misunderstanding, Mr. Cat! It's not what you think!
  • While Kaeloo is on the phone with Pretty, Mr. Cat, who is in the same room as Kaeloo, keeps annoying her until she snaps and starts to beat him up; Pretty, who doesn't know what's going on, is implied to have assumed that Kaeloo and Mr. Cat are doing the horizontal mambo.
• Kim Possible:
  • Downplayed in the episode "Homecoming Upset". Bonnie forces Ron into a kiss just as Kim arrives on the scene. After getting over the shock of the sight, Ron tries to reassure a very pissed off Kim that Bonnie forced the kiss onto him unwillingly. Turns out, Kim is well aware that Ron would never cheat; her anger is purely directed at Bonnie.
    Ron: Hey, I was the "kissee" here, not the "kisser"!
    Kim: No kidding! It took ya twelve stinkin' years to kiss me!
  • Subverted in "Ill Suited", where Ron is trying to explain why he stole Kim's battlesuit.
    Ron: Wait wait! It's not what you think!
    Kim: Oh? So you're not a cheater, a liar and a thief?!
    Ron: ... OK, it is what you think.
  • In "Car Alarm", Kim gets her latest gadgets: magnetized rings to help her hold onto the side of a speeding car. Only they look like they could be meant for something else...
    Rufus: (hums 'Here Comes the Bride')
    Ron: I...I had nothing to do with this!
• King of the Hill:
  • In one of the stranger episodes, "Hank's Dirty Laundry", Hank Hill needs to watch pornographic videos to prove to a video clerk that the porno video he allegedly rented and didn't return doesn't exist, so he can clear his credit and buy a new washing machine. When Peggy sees him from behind, crouched over (Hank is clearly taking notes to find clues, but from Peggy's perspective, it looks more like masturbating), she freaks out and tells Bobby to leave the house. The original scene (which can be seen on the complete second season DVD) had Hank shaking his pen after it dried up, making the illusion of masturbation more obvious (naturally, the FOX censors wouldn't allow this).
  • And in "Strangeness On A Train", Hank pulls the train's emergency brake, the sudden screeching halt throwing everyone to the floor in a heap. The conductor (already in a sour mood) assumes they're engaged in an orgy and kicks them off the train.
  • Spoofed in another episode where Peggy and Bobby start grilling with charcoal; when Hank finds a briquette in the kitchen, Peggy quickly insists that it's drugs (considering how Hank gets about his propane, drugs would probably be preferable).
  • In "My Own Private Rodeo", we learn that Dale's father Bug has been estranged from him after Dale caught him kissing Nancy during their wedding reception. Later, Bug shares his side of the story with Hank. At the time, he was still in the closet about his sexuality and was about to be caught kissing a male caterer, so he grabbed the nearest woman in arms reach. Unluckily for him, that woman was Nancy and the person walking in was Dale.
• Looney Tunes:
  • The Sylvester & Tweety short "Tweet And Sour" has Sylvester, who had been warned by Granny that he'd be sent to a violin factory if he laid one paw on Tweety, spend the majority of the short trying to retrieve Tweety after he had been captured by another cat. After getting the other cat out of the way (via a stick of dynamite attached to a balloon as he tries to enter the house through the chimney), Sylvester's attempt to avoid Granny's threat is in vain. Granny walks in just as Sylvester's putting Tweety back in the cage. After briefly attempting to explain, the cartoon ends with Sylvester giving up.
    Granny: (enters the house and believes Sylvester is trying to eat Tweety again) So! Even after all that warning!
    Sylvester: (tries to explain what really happened, but it's no use) Ah, what's the use?! She'd never believe me! (plays Chopin's "Funeral March" on the violin before falling into the cello case as a coffin to his demise)
  • The shorts with Sylvester as Porky Pig's pet sometimes had these moments; in cases where Porky does notice the constant deathtraps he's getting into, circumstances will usually convince him that his cat is at fault. For instance, "Claws for Alarm" has a sleeping Porky getting his neck caught in an overhead noose that Sylvester cuts off with a straight razor, and he wakes up to see Sylvester holding it up.
    Porky: S-S-Sylvester, w-w-what are you doing w-w-with that rope? And t-that razor?
• In Miraculous Ladybug episode "Prime Queen", Nadja Chamack questions Ladybug on her supposed relationship with Cat Noir, and shows some pictures taken from past episodes as evidence, starting with the infamous Big Damn Kiss from "Dark Cupid". Naturally, Ladybug insists that He Is Not My Boyfriend, and that the photos are just taken out of context.
  Ladybug: [to Cat] I was saving you, not kissing you!
• 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.
• In the My Scene movie "Jammin' in Jamaca", Barbie is shocked when she sees her boyfriend River hugging Madison, making her assume he's cheating on her, and she flees, shocking the two trying to tell her it's not what she thought.
• In the The New Adventures of the Wonder Twins short "Be Kind, Rewind" the twins are at a video store when they spot Marvin and Wendy, now adults. They try to evade Marvin and end up going into the basement of the store, which is the pornographic section. Marvin notices them and follows them. As they're in the Adult section he gets the wrong idea that they are either incestuous or they watch porn together.
• The Owl House: In "Lost in Language", When Luz tries to get Amity's diary away from Edric and Emira, pages from her diary falls out and Luz tries to pick them up. While gathering the pages, Amity comes in and sees Luz with her diary, making her believe Luz is stealing it and calls her a bully.
• Phineas and Ferb: In the climax of "One Good Scare Ought To Do It!", Candace is trying to show Mom the boys "destroyed" the backyard and left an "ugly mess" there, but by the time Mom comes, the haunted house is gone, and only Baljeet is there. This causes Mom to think Candace is insulting him, and leaves her. Then when the haunted house returns, she tries to show her again, but Doofenshmirtz's Disintevaporator, which was attached to the top, runs out, causing it to self-destruct by the time Candace brings Mom out. Baljeet is back, having forgotten his satchel, Mom thinking Candace insulted him again before leaving.
• In a Robot Chicken sketch, a man finds his wife in bed with another man. The woman pretends they were playing a role playing game and the husband asks if he can also play. In a later sketch, the man is in bed with another woman. He explains that they were role playing and the wife says she knows.
• South Park "Good Times with Weapons": At the end, Kenny, Kyle and Stan thought the townspeople were angry with them for what happened to Butters, only to learn that they were really angry at Cartman for his nudity, not the weapon. The boys come to the conclusion that just as long the adults are worried about nudity, weapons are okay.
• SpongeBob SquarePants:
  • In "Prehibernation Week" as Sandy slides down a mountain on a snowboard so fast she burns the clothes off a skiing couple, one is dressed as you'd expect, while the other turns out to have been wearing a young boys outfit, a lollipop, and a whole tricycle beneath his clothes. What does he have to say?
    Skii Fish: Uuuh... I can explain.
  • In "The Bully", after Flats faints from exhaustion for failing to beat up SpongeBob, the students cheer and SpongeBob then makes a Rousing Speech of his experience, ending with him clenching his fist in the air. At that moment, Mrs. Puff then enters, sees SpongeBob making a fist before Flats on the floor, which makes it look like SpongeBob beat up Flats, and she punishes him.
  • In "Stuck in the Wringer" after Patrick unwillingly injures SpongeBob at the Coral Carnival, this prompts the infuriated sponge to lash out at Patrick for all this happening thanks to using Forever Glue instead of freeing him, causing him to run away in sadness. The carnival patrons witnessing this misinterpret it as SpongeBob bullying Patrick, thus they call him out for it and tell him he deserves to be stuck in his wringer for what he did.
  • This is generally the conflict of "A Pal For Gary". Puffy Fluffy, the seemingly cute blowfish SpongeBob gets for Gary, is completely dangerous around other animals, especially snails. When SpongeBob leaves, Puffy Fluffy takes his cue to attack Gary, and by the time SpongeBob returns, Puffy Fluffy reverts to cute mode so it looks like Gary is ignoring Puffy Fluffy and not giving him a chance, leaving SpongeBob to put the blame on Gary. Naturally, this comes from him ignoring the gypsy's warning about Puffy Fluffy (the pet is dangerous around other pets, especially snails), even straight-up stealing him without even listening. She even comments aside...
    Seller: Why bother? They never listen. Ugh...
• Star Trek: Lower Decks: "Mugato, Gumato": Mariner stabs Shaxs in the chest and then bites the wound, making Boimler and Rutherford assume that her programming has turned her into a killer. She was actually draining the poison from a mugato wound.
• Steven Universe: In "Made of Honour", Bismuth (recently released by Steven so he can invite her to the wedding between Ruby and Sapphire) sees the Burning Room, the place in the Gem Temple where the Crystal Gems keep all of the bubbled Corrupted Gems they've captured, and assumes the Gems, many of whom she knew, to have been poofed and bubbled for disagreeing with Rose Quartz like she herself was. Despite Steven's warnings, Bismuth doesn't realize otherwise until she un-bubbles her old friend Biggs Jasper (a.k.a. the Orange Great North Monster) and sees her corrupted form for herself, and is then forced to poof her old friend, allowing Steven the opportunity to re-bubble the Gem.
• TRON: Uprising: In "Rendezvous", Tron walks in on Beck repeatedly replaying his memories of Paige, whereupon Beck explains that it's "not what it looks like" and that he's "gauging [his] opponent". Tron doesn't buy it (whilst refering to Beck and Paige's meeting as a date).
• The Venture Bros. gives an example in the episode "Dr. Quymn, Medicine Woman", when the nature-loving Dr. Quymn stumbles upon Brock & the boys training an Orangutan to box as part of one of Rusty's schemes:
  Rusty: No, noooo, this isn't how it looks!
  Dean: Yeah it is.
• In the third season of Winx Club, this happens in episode 21 after Layla caught Nabu having snuck on the ship. While Flora was filming a message for Helia, Musa was putting shackles on Nabu. The camera angles made it look like Musa was kissing Nabu, and Riven saw the message and got the wrong idea. The misunderstanding was quickly cleared up in the next episode after a brief fight between Riven and Nabu, and seeing that Riven really cared about her, Musa decided not to break up with him.
• Wolverine and the X-Men (2009): Happens during a training session between Iceman and Shadowcat, with both rolling in each other's arms as Angel walks on them.

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