Basic Trope: A character grabs a bag and jumps from a great height, mistaking it for a parachute, when it actually contains something else.
- Straight: Bob escapes captivity in an enemy helicopter by grabbing a brown bag from a hook and diving out the side door. When he opens it, someone's dirty laundry falls out instead of a parachute.
- Exaggerated:
- The bag contains a few dozen folded suits, several properly cooked meals, a TV, a bed, a shower cubicle, a car and an entire society of living socks that all go flying once Bob undoes the zip.
- Bob is piloting an aircraft that has a parachute-style air brake. However, upon landing the aircraft, he deploys it and the janitor's dirty underpants come flying out the back, causing it to crash.
- Downplayed: Bob accidentally jumps off the roof of his bungalow with one of his wife's stockings instead of an umbrella.
- Justified: There were two very similar bags in the helicopter Bob was fleeing from and, being held by enemy goons with guns, he didn't have the time to decipher which one was which.
- Inverted: Bob mixes up the bags for his parachute and dirty laundry while filling the washing machine and, after escaping the helicopter he's being transported in the next day, he opens his parachute... which is now pink, making him easier to see and aim at for the goons back in the helicopter.
- Subverted: Bob pulls his ripcord and a sock flies out the top, much to his terror, but it's revealed that it was just erroneously placed in with the parachute and the actual parachute deploys moments later.
- Double Subverted: As it turns out, this parachute belongs to a smaller pack inside the one Bob is wearing, so he ends up falling once again.
- Parodied: Bob pulls the rip-chord and a line of laundry starts coming out. However, he grabs a bra that's on its way out and uses it to float to safety.
- Zig-Zagged: Bob chose a parachute that was faulty rather than the one that worked properly. He may have chosen a parachute, but not one that was of any good use.
- Averted:
- Bob picks the correct parachute.
- Bob is not put in a position where he needs to use a parachute.
- Enforced: "You have a skydiving scene here? Bob NEEDS to pick the wrong parachute so Alice can use the actual one later in the story!"
- Lampshaded: "You know, I had a sinking feeling that this parachute was too light..."
- Invoked: Bob intentionally picked the backpack with only a large bra inside to fake his own death so that the goons in the helicopter wouldn't shoot after him. He uses the bra as a parachute on the way down.
- Defied: Bob uses a smoke bomb in the helicopter to disorientate the goons, then he takes a second to examine the two bags on the wall and choose the right one.
- Discussed: "I tried unpacking my laundry from my trip and an entire parachute came out! It knocked me against the wall!" "Wait, hasn't Bob gone skydiving today-? Oh, bum..."
- Conversed: "How could you possibly mix your parachute up with my washing? Didn't you notice the parachute was too light? Now what am I going to wear to Nigel's wine tasting?"
- Implied: A man is walking the dog in a field when a he hears a scream, which quickly gets louder and louder. Suddenly, Bob falls from the sky and leaves an Impact Silhouette in the ground. As he climbs up and greets the very confused dog-walker, an assortment of clothes fall around the three.
- Deconstructed: ???
- Reconstructed: ???
- Played for Laughs: This trope is mostly played for laughs by default.
- Played for Drama: The scene of clothes falling out of the pack is intercut with a flashback of the goons from the helicopter intentionally placing the clothing backpack on the hook marked with a parachute and laughing evilly. Bob now has to pull of an incredible move to save himself.
Back to Wrong Parachute Gag.
