History Main / FooledByTheSound

** ''WesternAnimation/IceAge2TheMeltdown'': At one point, Manny and Diego hear another animal farting and mistake it for the sound of a mammoth.

** ''Film/HomeAlone2'': Kevin uses a tape recorder slowed down to make his own voice sound deeper, pretending to be his father when he makes his hotel reservation by telephone, which fools the hotel staff.

** ''Film/{{Predators}}'': After an ambush halfway into the film, the Predators managed to capture and maim Cuchillo, one of the prey, and sets him up at the edge of a field with an audio recording of Cuchillo calling for help. Isabella wants to approach Cuchillo only for Royce, the de-facto leader, to stop her when he senses a trap; Isabella then delivers a MercyKill to Cuchillo via SniperRifle only for him to continue calling, where it turns out he's dead the whole time and his corpse is being propped up as bait.* ''Film/TheRuins'': In both the book and film, the killer plants are able to learn sounds. They start off by imitating the sound of a ringing cell phone, which causes Pablo to get his back broken in the book, and then escalate to imitating voices to spread discord among the group.

* ''Film/{{Predator}}'': Played to sinister effect, as the Predator's equipment can function as a high-tech "duck call", allowing the alien to imitate any sound, and any voice, to distract or unnerve his targets.
* ''Film/TheRuins'': In both the book and film, the killer plants are able to learn sounds. They start off by imitating the sound of a ringing cell phone, which causes Pablo to get his back broken in the book, and then escalate to imitating voices to spread discord among the group.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode "Squid's Day Off", Squidward is left in charge of the Krusty Krab and tries to take advantage of the situation by playing hooky from work, under the guise of running unspecified "errands", only to drive himself to paranoia wondering what [=SpongeBob=] might be doing in his absence. When he finally starts to relax, he hears [=SpongeBob=]'s signature laugh outside, and thinks [=SpongeBob=] is spying on him, but when he checks, the sound turns out to be a coral branch scraping against the window.

->Clenching his teeth, Han raised his blaster. But even as he did so, his peripheral vision caught Luke's hand making some sort of gesture; and suddenly the Imperial spun around in the opposite direction, pointing his blaster rifle toward a patch of empty floor. "He thinks he heard a noise," Luke whispered. "Let's go."

Super-trope to MistakenForFlatulence and PainMistakenForSex. This can overlap with CoveringForTheNoise, when an unwanted noise is made, and somebody tries to distract from it by imitating the same noise again, to distract from the first time the noise happened. Can also come from a FunnyPhoneMisunderstanding or OutOfContextEavesdropping. Compare CacophonyCoverUp, in which any noise is made to distract from another. Also compare {{Gesundheit}} and WhosOnFirst for confusion over spoken words. See also NobodyHereButUsBirds, when somebody imitates a bird noise. This can be one possibility for a SoundOnlyDeath (or [[HesJustHiding at least a fan theory]]).

* ''WesternAnimation/Cars1'': When Doc's engine sputters, Lightning believes that Doc is shooting at him.

** The monster known as the leucrotta, first introduced in ''TabletopGame/AdvancedDungeonsAndDragonsFirstEdition'', can imitate noises such as the voices of human beings or the sound of domestic animals which are in pain. It does this from concealment in order to lure other creatures close enough to be attacked.

** ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys3'': To fool Springtrap into moving somewhere else, you have to play a soundbite of Balloon Boy's laugh via the audio devices. Given [[WouldHurtAChild who's the undead person]] inside the Springtrap suit, it makes perfect sense why he'd go after it, thinking it's children he could target.

** ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys3'': To fool Springtrap into moving somewhere else, you have to play a soundbite of Balloon Boy's laugh via the audio devices, [[spoiler:which is a default option for the suit Springtrap got stuck in.]]

** In volume 3's extras, a scene during the infiltration of the Hanazono mansion is shown in which three of the girls hide and imitate meowing to make the gaurds think it's just the cat. However one of the girls, Shizuka, is a CuteMute who speaks using a text-to-speech app on her phone that reads lines from literary passages. It still fools the guard.

** In "[[Recap/TheLoudHouseS1E26StudyMuffinHomespun Study Muffin]]", the sisters say, "Buh, buh, buh" when they're distracted by Hugh, a man on whom they have a crush. The other sisters hear this noise and initially mistake it for a goose or a sheep.