Basic Trope: Someone is punished for something they aren't responsible for.
- Straight: Ms. Troperson punishes Alice for talking during class, when it was actually Bob who was talking.
- Exaggerated:
- Ms. Troperson punishes the whole class because she thought they were talking when they weren't supposed to.
- Ms. Troperson fails and expels the entire class, just because she incorrectly thought that they were talking during class.
- Nobody was talking during class, but Ms. Troperson still punishes someone anyway.
- Murder by Mistake
- Alice goes on to punish someone for something else they weren't responsible for.
- Downplayed:
- Bob was talking to Alice, and she responded to him occasionally. She's punished as if she were the main culprit.
- Ms. Troperson doesn't give Alice any punishments, but does ask her not to talk during class, even though she wasn't the one to be doing that.
- Ms. Troperson threatens to get Alice in trouble, but doesn't follow through with it.
- Justified:
- Alice has a history of talking during class (or otherwise misbehaving), and Ms. Troperson assumed it was her, not realizing it wasn't Alice this time.
- Ms. Troperson legitimately thought she heard Alice talking.
- Ms. Troperson is a Sadist Teacher and is intentionally singling Alice out.
- Ms. Troperson's entire day has been bad, Alice's minor act of defiance was the straw that lead to her boiling over.
- Inverted: The second Bob looks like he's about to start talking during class, Ms. Troperson punishes him.
- Subverted: Before being "puinshed" by Ms. Troperson, Alice explains the teacher that it was Bob's fault.
- Double Subverted: ...but Alice gets blamed anyway.
- Parodied: ???
- Zig-Zagged: ???
- Averted: Ms. Troperson only punishes students who she knows have done something they're responsible for.
- Enforced: "Alice is the Butt-Monkey, what should go wrong for her today?" "How about she gets in trouble for something she didn't do?"
- Lampshaded: ???
- Invoked: Bob tries imitating Alice's voice so that she'll get in trouble for talking during class instead of him.
- Exploited: ???
- Defied:
- Ms. Troperson doesn't punish anyone right off the bat, and instead waits until she can figure out who did it.
- Alice is able to correctly affirm that she wasn't the one talking during class.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: "I felt so bad for Alice when the teacher got her in trouble for something she didn't do."
- Deconstructed: After Alice is wrongly punished for Bob's actions, she snaps and exacts her own retribution against Bob and Ms. Troperson.
Back to Misplaced Retribution
