History Main / NonverbalMiscommunication

'''Chloe''': Like?

->''(Lucifer makes a finger gun)''\\

* In ''Series/{{Chuck}}'', Devon needs to lie to his wife about where he was when he was doing spy work with Chuck, who is trying in vain to guide the story using hand gestures. [[SarcasmMode Astonishingly]], she doesn't buy it.
-->'''Ellie:''' ''[sarcastically]'' Oh, my God! You were attacked by a ''bear''?!\\
''[Chuck makes the "cut" motion on his neck]''\\
'''Devon:''' Yeah, and I j... I... cut off its head!\\
''[Chuck {{facepalm}}s]''\\
'''Devon:''' Yeah, babe, I... I had to decapitate the bear. In self-defense! In order to survive! I'm just glad you weren't there to see it. [[{{Pun}} It was really grisly.]]
* ''Series/TheMiddle'': When Sue is at the meeting listing all the activities she tried (and failed) at in a speech, Frankie gives her a 'hurry up' gesture from the audience. Sue sees this and concludes "Oh, yes, and tumbling."
* In an episode of ''Series/{{Psych}}'', Shawn and Gus see a Bounty Hunter wink at them, and practically grow to HeroWorship him. It isn't until in their adult life, they find out said Bounty Hunter's wink was merely a facial tic.
* On ''Series/{{Friends}}'', Chandler is on the phone with a girl and Joey starts a really strange pantomime that he assumes is related to something Joey wants him to say to the girl. After he hangs up, he asks Joey what the hell he was signaling and Joey just explains he wanted to know if Chandler wanted to [[BigEater order a pizza]].
* ''Series/Danger5'', a spoof of 1960's TV spy series. Claire is being [[BatheHerAndBringHerToMe led away by enemy soldiers]].
-->'''Claire:''' ''[winking]'' [subtitle: Stay on mission. We can handle ourselves.]\\
'''Tucker:''' ''[winking back]'' [subtitle: What?]
* In the ''Series/ModernFamily'' episode "Snip", Mitch has conspired with his and Cam's friend Longinus to have a conversation while at the latter's clothing boutique that will lead to Cam taking a job there, since Mitch wants him to but knows better than to suggest directly. It almost works, but as Cam is within earshot in the changing room trying on a shirt, another employee blabs about the whole scheme, completely oblivious to Longinus and Mitch's hand signals to shut up, and Cam storms out in a huff.
* ''Series/RedDwarf'': In "[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonXDearDave Dear Dave]]", Cat attempts to convey his news to the rest of the crew through charades (because he is bored). His attempt to mime 'the mail-pod has arrived and crashed into my clothes' is construed by the others as everything from 'we're about to fly into a black hole' to 'we're being attacked by zombies'.
* ''Series/DogWithABlog'': Tyler has to pretend to be a dog whisperer so that Nikki doesn't find out Stan's secret. He can't figure out what's wrong with Nikki's dog, Evita, but Stan sees that she has a bur in her paw and must tell Tyler without alerting Nikki. He jesticulates his paw but Tyler gets it wrong. Stan then writes it on the wall, but since he's a dog he doesn't know how to write. Finally, Stan calls Tyler.
* ''Series/HorribleHistories'': In a segment on the sign language of Saxon monks, a monk's attempt to tell his brothers that the Vikings are attacking is first interpreted as "the gorillas are making clay pots" and then "the gorillas are ringing the bells".
* ''Series/{{Jessie}}'': In "101 Lizards", Ravi finds that he cannot handle raising all of Mrs Kibling's 12 babies and eventually gives them away to a nice woman named Cassandra, who claims that the lizards will be be living a farm upstate. Bertram starts talking about a time his goldfish died and his parents flushed it under the pretense of it going to live in a "farm upstate". Jessie waves her hands repeatedly to get him to stop talking, but he continues anyway and Ravi faints in horror. He then wakes up thinking it was AllJustADream and Jessie repeatedly waves her hands again before Luke can correct him that it wasn't a dream, but Luke does so anyway worrying Ravi even more. Jessie eventually gives up and says "Apparently, I need a new signal!"
* ''Series/TheSlammer'': When the Governor loses his memory, Gimbert attempts to mime the name of the next act to him from offstage. The first attempt to convey the name of acrobat Alina Eskina is interpreted by the Governor as "a lean, mean laughing monkey".
* Neatly subverted in [[http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/sbnihg/drugs-are-cool this]] ''[[Series/TheDailyShow Daily Show]]'' skit. Stephen Colbert proposes a reverse psychology advert campaign: Drugs are cool, kids! Jon Stewart asks if these ads will work better than the traditional ones.
-->'''Colbert:''' Oh no, Jon. They won't be effective at all. ''[wink]''\\
'''Stewart:''' All right. So they won't be... they won't be effective at all?\\
'''Colbert:''' Not at all, Jon! ''[wink]''\\
'''Stewart:''' ...Are you coming on to me in a sexual way?\\
'''Colbert:''' Not at all, Jon! ''[wink]''
* ''Series/{{Cheers}}'':
** In the very first episode, Diane picks up the phone when the caller is trying to reach Sam, who doesn't want the call, so first he makes his fingers walk to indicate "Tell her I left" which Diane understands, but when looking for an excuse, he makes scissors with his fingers and makes hair-cutting motions. Diane's interpretation: "He had to go to mime class!"
** In another episode, Coach is supposed to signal a corrupt card player that his opponent has a poor hand by scratching his cheek. Unfortunately, his cheek starts to itch...
** In yet another episode, Diane shows off her mime skills, while Cliff gives a running commentary of what he thinks she's doing.
* ''Series/TheWorstYearOfMyLifeAgain'': In "Maths Test", Simon attempts to mime to Alex that Mr Norris had announced that the art teacher was sick. Alex somehow interprets this as they are going to have a maths test.

* In the miniseries ''Series/{{Dune}}'', the Fremen leader Stilgar spits on the table in front of Duke Lete Atreides (which in the Fremen culture is a gesture of respect). Paul is the one who steps in (this showing he knows the ways of the desert) to prevent Stilgar from being attacked.
* ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus''. One sketch had a courtroom where the participants communicated using Charades, resulting in a judge misinterpreting a jury's decision as "Not guilcup".
* Played for laughs, of course, on ''Series/PoliceSquad''. In one episode, criminals leave a message for the police. But instead of tying a note to a brick and hurling it through the window, they tie a ''mime'' to a brick and hurl him through the window. The mime then proceeds to act out the criminals' demands, which the detectives must interpret. [[TheFool Frank Drebin]], as you'd guess, is terrible at charades.
* ''Series/NightCourt''. A friend of Mac's cannot communicate that he is choking on a hot dog and is forced to write a plea for help on the table in ketchup. "'Mac, I'm cooking'?"
* ''Series/Lucifer2016'': Charlotte tries to get Detective Chloe Decker to investigate a case without revealing Charlotte and Lucifer's prior involvement. Lucifer tries to mime signals from behind Chloe.
->'''Charlotte''': I heard things on the phone call.
->'''Chloe''': Like?
->''(Lucifer makes a finger gun)''
->'''Charlotte''': Fingers, pointing.
->'''Chloe''': You heard fingers pointing?
->'''Charlotte''': ''(Lucifer glares at her)'' Very angrily, yes. ''(Lucifer mimes shooting)'' Also a gunshot. ''(Lucifer clutches his chest, slumping on the desk)'' Sounded like he was dying, or...melting? It's hard to tell.

* ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' has a wonderful example from Mordin Solus. If you pursue a romantic relationship with a crew member he'll offer advice, which is quite helpful in the cross-racial routes. If you don't pursue a relationship, he turns ''you'' down. Apparently you ''blinked'' at him in a suggestive manner.
* In ''VideoGame/JakIIRenegade'' Onin is a wise old soothsayer who gives Jak and Daxter advice many times during their quest. She's mute, and so normally communicates through hand motions which are translated by Pecker, her [[MixAndMatchCritters Moncaw]] companion. When Daxter tries to do this himself, he fails miserably.

* Happens in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/StormHawks'' when Aerrow is attempting to interpret Radarr's mime:
-->'''Aerrow:''' You were... Boxing? Dancing? Shucking corn?

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLifeAsATeenageRobot'': Jenny has lost the language disc that allows her to speak English, so she tries to convey the message to Dr. Wakeman with a game of charades. Wakeman manages to understand "I cannot...", but jumps to the wrong conclusions when Jenny is trying to make out "speak".
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': In a case of both this and ShownTheirWork, this is why the ponies are afraid of Zecora when she first goes to Ponyville. She digs her hoof into the ground, which is something that zebras do in real life to search for water. Unfortunately for her, for horses, this is a threat gesture. When Twilight goes to meet her, the other ponies warn her that Zecora is "scary and threatening". She WAS, it was just due to a misunderstanding rather than malicious intent.
* Before the end of an episode of ''WesternAnimation/KaBlam'' the director makes a stretching motion with his hands. June asks if that means he wants her to make taffy.

* This leads to an OverlyLongGag in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'' episode "Let's Play Cops and Robbers", where [[TheUnintelligible Quack Quack]] tries to communicate with [[TheDitz Stumpy]] using HandSignals.
* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'': In "Day Trip of Doom!", Webby is trying (and failing) to talk her way out of an awkward situation with the manager at Funso's Fun Zone. Louie makes [[ThroatSlittingGesture a throat-slashing "cut it out" gesture]], but Webby misinterprets it and briefly looks like she's seriously considering attacking the man with a spork before Louie stops her.
* A memorable example occurred in ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' when Perry the Platypus is acting as Doctor Doofenshmirtz's wingman on the latter's date. Perry tries to signal to Doof to invite the woman to dinner:
-->'''Doofenshmirtz:''' ''[watching Perry's gestures]'' Oh, well let's see... we could rub our stomachs, and point to our mouths, and later we can roll our eyes and [[FacePalm put our heads in our hands...]]
* ''WesternAnimation/PeepAndTheBigWideWorld'': One episode has the birds trying to find acorns for the [[TheSpeechless squirrel]]. Quack consistently misunderstands the squirrel's pantomiming, thinking he's saying "he wants to dance with a chicken" or "frogs are flying in from the west".

* Pretty much the entire premise of ''Manga/{{Mitsudomoe}}''.
* In one of the ''Manga/OnePiece'' specials, the villain captain and one of his underlings attempt to communicate through eye contact and subtle gestures. It fails.
-->'''Captain:''' ''[signalling through eye contact]'' Do any of the others have devil fruit powers?\\
'''Underling:''' ''[thinking]'' He must be asking if I have the situation under control... ''[aloud]'' Leave everything to me!

* In an early episode of ''Anime/CodeGeass'', Lelouch pulls the collar of his shirt to signal Suzaku to meet on the roof later. The audio dramas expand this quite a bit: Lelouch, a {{crazy prepared}} super-nerd even at that age, had created an entire language of over a hundred hand signals for them to communicate with. Of course, Suzaku couldn't remember them all, leading to quite a bit of confusion until Lelouch simplified it.

* In ''FanFic/ThisBites'', this applies given that the city of octopi the Straw Hats run into communicate mainly by eight-tentacled sign language... and Vivi and Robin end up [[MyHovercraftIsFullOfEels insulting the shogun, his lineage]] and his [[SeriousBusiness surfing skills]] when Vivi accidentally uses [[AccidentalUnfortunateGesture the eight-tentacled dialect instead of the eight-jointed-limbed dialect]].
* At one point in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4045539/1/Crack-d-Mirror Crack'd Mirror]]'', Hermione tries to communicate with her eyes that she thinks Luna is an impostor. Unfortunately, the sex-crazed alternate Harry thinks she's talking about having more sex and signals back he's always up for a threesome, which Hermione mistakes for him saying he's got a plan and to follow along.
* This comes up in chapter eighteen of ''Fanfic/CellarSecrets''. Because the she tends to communicate nonverbally, Ryuuko gestures to Uzu, however, unlike her sisters, he can't understand her gestures, in which case, she gets frustrated and hits him.
* ''Series/{{Supergirl 2015}}'' fanfic ''Fanfic/MyYouthIsYours'': Averted; Kara and Lena's nonverbal communication skills were so good in college they were banned from charades. This continues in the main story, where Lena nearly always interprets Kara's expressions perfectly (and vice versa) even when others have trouble.

* In ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'', Scrat attempts to warn Manny and Sid of the ambush by Diego's pack. They understand "pack of..." but can't find out the last part, even when Scrat points directly at Diego.
* In the AnimatedAdaptation of ''Recap/AsterixInBritain'', the Roman invasion fleet is being coordinated by a centurion using hand flags. Just then a seagull lands on his helmet. His frantic efforts to brush it off inadvertently signal the catapults to open fire on their own ships.
-->'''Caesar:''' Centurion, make a note: I came, I saw, [[SurroundedByIdiots I can't believe my eyes]]!

* Mel Brooks' ''Film/YoungFrankenstein'' features a scene where the monster grabs and chokes Frankenstein. Since he cannot talk, he frantically uses Charades to communicate to his assistants that they should sedate his monster. They take a long time about it before Igor finally guesses "Sedagive!". Frankenstein is not pleased. In the Broadway version, it is 'Flying Down to Rio', which may be a reference to [[Film/TheProducers another Mel Brooks movie turned Broadway musical.]]
* Partial example in ''Film/MenInBlack'' where the attractive female medical examiner attempts to signal to Agent J that there's a hostile alien in the room with them, and he thinks she's flirting with him, and while she is talking most of her indications of the alien are nonverbal.

* In ''Film/TheLosers'', when on top of a tall building, villain nods to his agent, who then throws a businessman down. Villain then "complains" that it wasn't that kind of nod and he just wanted the agent to beat the victim. It's one of the BigBad's [[EvilHasABadSenseOfHumor not so funny jokes.]]
* Gymnasia's life story in ''Theatre/AFunnyThingHappenedOnTheWayToTheForum''. HighClassCallGirl, occasionally CuteMute, known as ''Gymnasia the Silent''. No-one even bothered to make sense of what she tried to say... until Pseudolous started acting as her {{Love Interest|s}} and TranslatorBuddy.
* In ''Film/DownPeriscope'', Creator/KelseyGrammer's character LCDR Dodge is in command of an old diesel submarine pitted in a training exercise against the nuclear Navy. During one engagement, they hide on the bottom of the ocean, while a nuclear submarine is right above them. Trying to get the other sub to leave, he tries to get Sonar to play taped recordings of whale song against the hull. He tries, unsuccessfully, for about a minute with only gestures, which results in another crew member making completely different gestures, completely confusing Sonar. After Dodge starts over and seemingly gets his point across, Sonar misinterprets the order and ''starts making the whale noises himself''. [[spoiler: And it ''works''.]]
* In ''Film/RushHour2'', [[Creator/JackieChan Lee]] takes [[Creator/ChrisTucker Carter]] to a massage parlor in Hong Kong because Lee wants to have a talk with the [[TheTriadsAndTheTongs Triad]] boss Ricky Tan (also a friend of his late father's [[spoiler:and his murderer]]). When Carter finds out, he takes his "LA cop" image a little too far and tries to strongarm Tan into going with them to the police station, not realizing that nearly every other client in the parlor is a Triad member. When Lee half-winks and nods to the side, he's trying to get Carter to leave before it's too late. Unfortunately, Carter assumes Lee wants him to grab Tan and drag him out of the parlor. Cue dozens of henchmen getting up to defend Tan.

* Played for drama in ''Film/IngloriousBasterds'', where this trope, combined with CriticalResearchFailure, gets a lot of people killed. A British officer is inside Germany in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, impersonating a German officer. A real German officer gets suspicious and starts to quiz him. The Brit seems to have fended off the German's suspicions--until he orders drinks, signaling the waitress for three drinks by raising the index, middle, and ring fingers of his right hand. The German catches him out, noting that Germans signal "three" by raising their index finger, middle finger, and ''thumb''. Cue a bloody shootout.
* In ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'', the LiteralMinded Drax doesn't understand why he would want to press his finger against Ronan's throat. Peter tries to explain it's a symbol for slitting his throat, but Drax doesn't want to do that either. He wants to behead him.
* In Creator/DavidLynch's ''Film/Dune1984'' the Fremen leader Liet-Kynes spits on the table in front of Duke Lete Atreides. Duke Leto recognizes the gesture as being friendly (due to how precious ''any'' moisture is on a desert planet) and stops Gurney Halleck from stabbing Liet-Kynes.
* ''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}''. The title character is trying to get Lydia to say his name three times so he can be released from his imprisonment. He's not allowed to say his own name, so he uses a sort of visual image Charades to teach her his name. Trouble starts when he tries to get to say the "juice" part.
-->''[Beetlejuice shows an image of a box of orange juice pouring out the juice]''\\
'''Lydia:''' Breakfast? Orange? Orange beetle? Beetle fruit? Beetle breakfast? Beetle drink? ''[she finally gets it]'' Beetle juice?
* In ''Film/LtRobinCrusoeUSN'', Robin, thinking that his girl Wednesday doesn't speak English, gets her to explain her situation through charades, leading to this. It then turns out she speaks fluent English, but was enjoying their little game.
* In ''Film/LoneSurvivor'', the injured soldier Luttrel is given shelter by a village in Afghanistan. He needs to remove shrapnel from his leg, and since he cannot speak their language, he mimes for a knife. A boy hands him a duck instead. The boy's father understands and produces a knife, but thinks he wants him to slaughter the duck until Luttrel finally manages to get him to hand him the knife.
* ''Film/DoctorDolittle'': While the doctor learns to speak to animals, he tries to tell a pig "Good morning" by grunting and shaking his right leg. However, he shakes his ''left'' leg, which translates to "Good night."
* At the start of ''Film/HolmesAndWatson'', Watson misinterprets Holmes' attempts to suggest other means of killing himself as Holmes talking him down off the roof and telling him that he loves him.

* ''Literature/{{Dune}}'': At one point in the first book, the Duke makes an offer to a Fremen, one of the wild men of the desert. In response, the Fremen spits on the meeting table in front of the Duke. As most of the men in the room rise to defend the Duke's honor, Duncan Idaho, a ducal advisor who has been living among the Fremen to learn the Fremen's ways--stops them and thanks the ambassador for the gift of his body's moisture, then quietly informs the Duke that Fremen value water very highly, and he had basically just given the Duke a compliment. Also counts as a CrossCulturalKerfuffle.
* Averted in ''On Wings of Eagles'' (set during the Ayatollah revolution in Iran) when an American reminds his companion not to flag a lift with a raised thumb, as it's an obscene gesture in Iran.
* ''Literature/BoredOfTheRings''. When the "tall, dark Ranger" tries to use HandSignals to tell Frito to meet him in the men's room in five minutes, several onlookers think he's trying to play a game of Charades and start calling out "Famous saying?" and "Sounds like!"
* A medieval European folktale has a man everyone believes to be a scholar through bizarre circumstances. He tries to keep up the pretense, but on learning that other scholars are coming to interrogate him, he fakes a bad cough and receives them in his bed. One scholar starts his dissertation by lifting one finger, the man shows him three. The scholar is amazed that the man pointed out that while yes, there is one God, he is the Holy Trinity as well. Whereas the man thought the scholar was going to poke his eye out, so he countered by threatening to remove both his eyes and his nose.
* This is how a mountain on ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' ended up being called Your Finger You Fool (much like in Jokes above). An explorer pointed to the geographical feature he wanted the name of, got this response, and didn't realize what it actually meant.

* "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E7TheUnicornAndTheWasp The Unicorn and the Wasp]]", an episode of ''Series/DoctorWho'', has a similar situation of Charades under pressure. [[spoiler:As the Doctor tries to flush cyanide out of his system, he has to silently ask for a list of seemingly random things to help detoxify himself. Donna has a great deal of trouble with this, interpreting "salt" (represented with a shaking fist, i.e. sprinkling salt on food) as a cocktail shaker ("What do you want, a Harvey Wallbanger?") and "a shock" as a song (for which she suggests "Camptown Races?")]]
-->[[spoiler:'''The Doctor: How is "Harvey Wallbanger" one word!?]]
* Parodied in a sketch on ''Series/TheState'' where a choking restaurant customer putting his hands to his neck -- the international signal for "I'm choking" -- sets in motion a train of weird nonverbal gesticulations by his fellow diner, their waiter, the maitre d', and the busboy, while a {{Narrator}} explains the various misunderstandings caused by their failure to recognize each other's signals. The sketch ends with the choking victim recovering after having a year's supply of radishes dumped on him, and the audience realizing that the whole mess could have been averted if anyone had thought to ''speak''. Other than the guy who was choking, of course.
* An entire episode of ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' is built around this trope: George, with a piece of pulp in his eye, gets one of his co-workers fired and accidentally sells George Steinbrenner's birthday card to a sports memorabilia shop by way of some badly-timed winks.
* On ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' Carla tries to use pantomime to remind Turk of a deceased patient's name as he fumbles to recall it in front of the patient's grieving family. Her strange head gestures lead Turk to confess, "We used to call him Ol' Turkey Neck." Bob's family weren't thrilled by this response.

* In an episode of ''Series/PhilOfTheFuture'', Keely is enrolled into an advanced maths class after accidentally saying the correct answer to an equation that Phil figured out since it's the maths from ''his'' timeline. To keep up the charade, Phil works as being in charge of the projector in the advanced and gives the answers to Keely; although he trouble giving the answer x2.
-->''[Phil holds a card in front of the board]''\\
'''Keely:''' X-clip.\\
''[Phil holds up a paper]''\\
'''Keely:''' X-paper.\\
''[Phil shows up dressed as a cowboy and does the square dancing]''\\
'''Keely:''' X-cowboy....Dosedo...Square dancing (finally gets it right) x2.
* In ''Series/{{Angel}}'', Spike is a ghost, and is mindlessly wandering around Wolfram and Hart in silence. Fred mistakes his movement through a desk and then a wall for a sign, and by luck there really is an important plot item in the desk.

* In an episode of ''Series/MadAboutYou'', the two main characters are told by a counselor to only communicate non-verbally for a set period of time. HilarityEnsues.

* Series/{{Bones}} is given a signal to try and perk up an unconfident intern who had missed a small but important piece of evidence.
-->'''Director:''' Anyone could've missed that! I certainly couldn't have seen it! ''[nods at Bones to say something encouraging]''\\
'''Bones:''' Yes, I can't believe you missed it either.\\
'''Director:''' [[LampshadeHanging You were supposed to be encouraging!]]\\
'''Bones:''' [[TheSpock You know I can't read body language that well!]]
* Used in ''Series/ThirtyRock'' Liz Lemon tries to hide the fact that Tracy went to a strip club by telling his wife that he took his pet snake to the vet. When Tracy returns and his wife asks where he was (because "I'm back from doing whatever Liz Lemon said!" wasn't sufficient), Liz ALMOST saves the day.
-->(''Liz Lemon makes snake motion with hand and wiggles tongue)''\\
'''Tracy:''' My cobra, Ramsey...\\
''(Liz mimes getting sick)''\\
'''Tracy:''' Yeah, it got sick, so I took it to the vet.\\
''(Liz gives him a thumbs up and nods)''\\
'''Tracy:''' And then my thumb got caught in my butt so I nodded my head until it came out.
* In ''Series/{{Extras}}'', a journalist is interviewing Maggie under the pretense that she is Andy's assistant. Andy sits behind the journalist and tries to mime answers to her that will make him look good. Maggie constantly misunderstands his mimes, giving bizarre and unflattering answers.

* Used in ''Series/ThirtyRock'' Liz Lemon tries to hide the fact that Tracy went to a strip club by telling his wife that he took his pet snake to the vet. When Tracy returns and his wife asks where he was (because "I'm back from doing whatever Liz Lemon said!" wasn't sufficient enough), Liz ALMOST saves the day.
-->'''[Liz Lemon makes snake motion with hand and wiggles tongue]''\\

''[Liz mimes getting sick]''\\

''[Liz gives him a thumbs up and nods]''\\

* In Creator/DavidLynch's version of ''Film/{{Dune}}'' the Fremen leader Liet-Kynes spits on the table in front of Duke Lete Atreides. Duke Leto recognizes the gesture as being friendly (due to how precious ''any'' moisture is on a desert planet) and stops Gurney Halleck from stabbing Liet-Kynes.

* In ''Disney/TheEmperorsNewGroove'', Yzma's plan to poison Kuzco has failed, instead turning him into a llama. Kuzco hasn't noticed, and continues their dinner conversation. Yzma starts beating two pieces of broccoli together, trying to tell Kronk to knock him out. He thinks she's just asking for more broccoli. Yzma finally gets the message across by pounding her palm with her fist.
* In ''Disney/LiloAndStitch'', Lilo's sister tries to prompt Lilo from behind the social worker's back. It all goes well until Lilo misinterprets an enthusiastic gesture, a five-finger "stop" reaction, and a face palm as "I get... disciplined? Five times a day, with bricks!"

* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'': In "Day Trip of Doom!", Webby is trying (and failing) to talk her way out of an awkward situation with the manager at Funso's Fun Zone. Louie makes a throat-slashing "cut it out" gesture, but Webby misinterprets it and briefly looks like she's seriously considering attacking the man with a spork before Louie stops her.

* In ''Film/DownPeriscope'', Creator/KelseyGrammer's character LCDR Dodge is in command of an old diesel submarine pitted in a training exercise against the nuclear Navy. During one engagement, they hide on the bottom of the ocean, while a nuclear submarine is right above them. Trying to get the other sub to leave, he tries to get Sonar to play taped recordings of whale song against the hull. He tries, unsuccessfully, for about a minute with only gestures, which results in another crew member making completely different gestures, completely confusing Sonar. Becomes a SugarWiki/{{Funny Moment|s}} when, after Dodge starts over and seemingly gets his point across, Sonar misinterprets the order and ''starts making the whale noises himself''. [[spoiler: And it ''works''.]]

* A non-comedy example: In ''Series/BabylonFive'', the Earth-Minbari war started when a human commander misunderstood a Minbari gesture of respect as a signal that they were about to attack. Namely, they opened their ship's gunports while approaching, and as a bonus used scanners powerful enough to fry electrical systems on the human ships. The gesture of respect was the space equivalent of an open hand: gunports would be open but weapons would remain unpowered. Unfortunately, with their sensors overwhelmed by the Minbari scans, the humans couldn't tell that the weapons weren't powered, only seeing open gunports. The GenreSavvy Minbari leader Dukhat realized the potential misunderstanding but too late. He was killed in the opening volley, and the simple majority (i.e. by one vote) of the Grey Council voted to destroy humanity.

-->-- '''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'''

!!Examples

--> '''Captain:''' ''(signalling through eye contact)'' Do any of the others have devil fruit powers?
--> '''Underling:''' ''(thinking)'' He must be asking if I have the situation under control... ''(aloud)'' Leave everything to me!

* In ''Manga/{{Eyeshield 21}}'', Panther finally finds Shin, but then remembers that he can't speak Japanese. So he tries to motion that he wants to test his skills against him. Shin concludes that Panther's hungry.

* ComicStrip/{{Garfield}} has a subversion: Garfield successfully mimes a message to Jon ("You're standing in my food"), but Jon doesn't get that he is, in fact, ankle-deep in Garfield's food bowl. He thinks it's just a game of Charades, where he was supposed to guess a message (like a movie title) that has nothing to do with the situation at hand.

* In the ''{{Anime/Pokemon}}'' fanfic ''FanFic/{{Symbiosis}}'', Ash misinterprets Pikachu's hand signals for leash as a noose.

* Disney:
** In ''Disney/TheEmperorsNewGroove'', Yzma's plan to poison Kuzco has failed, instead turning him into a llama. Kuzco hasn't noticed, and continues their dinner conversation. Yzma starts beating two pieces of broccoli together, trying to tell Kronk to knock him out. He thinks she's just asking for more broccoli. Yzma finally gets the message across by pounding her palm with her fist.
** In ''Disney/LiloAndStitch'', Lilo's sister tries to prompt Lilo from behind the social worker's back. It all goes well until Lilo misinterprets an enthusiastic gesture, a five-finger "stop" reaction, and a face palm as "I get... disciplined? Five times a day, with bricks!"

* In the AnimatedAdaptation of ''[[Recap/AsterixInBritain Asterix in Britain]]'', the Roman invasion fleet is being coordinated by a centurion using hand flags. Just then a seagull lands on his helmet. His frantic efforts to brush it off inadvertently signal the catapults to open fire on their own ships.

-->'''Jason:''' Okay, Gwen, put me back on with him.
-->'''Gwen:''' That's what I've been trying to tell you, Jason. You ''are'' back with him.
-->'''Sarris:''' Perhaps I am not as stupid as I am ugly, commander!
-->'''Jason:''' ''(to Gwen)'' I gave you the 'kill' gesture.
-->'''Gwen:''' No, you gave me the 'we're dead' sign. I was agreeing with you. Like I know where the 'hold' button is.

-->'''Chico:''' Where's your seventy dollars?
-->'''Harpo:''' ''(shrugs and holds up ten fingers)''
-->'''Chico:''' You only got ten? What did you do with the other sixty?
-->'''Harpo:''' ''(outlines an hourglass figure in the air and whistles suggestively)''
-->'''Chico:''' Ohhhh. You buy a snake, huh?

* Gymnasia's life story in ''Theatre/AFunnyThingHappenedOnTheWayToTheForum''. HighClassCallGirl, occasionally CuteMute, known as ''Gymnasia the Silent''. No one even bothered to make sense of what she tried to say... until Pseudolous started acting as her {{Love Interest|s}} and TranslatorBuddy.
* In ''Film/DownPeriscope'', Creator/KelseyGrammer's character LCDR Dodge is in command of an old diesel submarine pitted in a training exercise against the nuclear Navy. During one engagement, they hide on the bottom of the ocean, while a nuclear submarine is right above them. Trying to get the other sub to leave, he tries to get Sonar to play taped recordings of whale song against the hull. He tries, unsuccessfully, for about a minute with only gestures, which results in another crew member making completely different gestures, completely confusing Sonar.
** Becomes a SugarWiki/{{Funny Moment|s}} when, after Dodge starts over and seemingly gets his point across, Sonar misinterprets the order and ''starts making the whale noises himself''. [[spoiler: And it ''works''.]]
* In ''Film/RushHour2'', [[Creator/JackieChan Lee]] takes [[Creator/ChrisTucker Carter]] to a massage parlor in Hong Kong because Lee wants to have a talk with the [[TheTriadsAndTheTongs Triad]] boss Ricky Tan (also a friend of his late father's [[spoiler:and his murderer]]). When Carter finds out, he takes his "LA cop" image a little too far and tries to strongarm Tan into going with them to the police station, not realizing that nearly every other client in the partlor is a Triad member. When Lee half-winks and nods to the side, he's trying to get Carter to leave before it's too late. Unfortunately, Carter assumes Lee wants him to grab Tan and drag him out of the parlor. Cue dozens of henchmen getting up to defend Tan.

-->'''Beetlejuice''': [Shows image of a box of orange juice pouring out the juice]
-->'''Lydia''': Breakfast? Orange? Orange beetle? Beetle fruit? Beetle breakfast? Beetle drink? [She finally gets it] Beetle juice?

---> '''Dia:''' It's a human custom. A new way to miscommunicate so you can find reason to kill each other.\\

---> '''Wes''': For a big bad X-wing warrior, you're sure rotten at saying no.\\
'''Wedge''': I didn't buy it, did I? Where were you when I needed you?\\
'''Wes''': Oh, I caught most of the show. I especially liked the part where you gave her that palms-outward sign.\\
'''Wedge''': That doesn't mean 'no' here?\\
'''Wes''': Not quite. It means you don't want it at that price but that she might want to try a better offer.
*** Lando meets up with them after a while, [[BrickJoke with a melon under his arm]].

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

--> [[spoiler:"How is 'Harvey Wallbanger' one word!?"]]

-->'''Phil:''' (holds a card in front of the board)
-->'''Keely:''' X-clip.
-->'''Phil:''' (holds up a paper)
-->'''Keely:''' X-paper.
-->''(Phil shows up dressed as a cowboy and does the square dancing)''
-->'''Keely:''' X-cowboy....Dosedo...Square dancing (finally gets it right) x2.

--> '''Director:''' Anyone could've missed that! I certainly couldn't have seen it! ''[nods at Bones to say something encouraging]''
--> '''Bones:''' Yes, I can't believe you missed it either.
--> '''Director:''' [[LampshadeHanging You were supposed to be encouraging!]]
--> '''Bones:''' [[TheSpock You know I can't read body language that well!]]
* Used in ''[[Series/ThirtyRock 30 Rock]]'' Liz Lemon tries to hide the fact that Tracy went to a strip club by telling his wife that he took his pet snake to the vet. When Tracy returns and his wife asks where he was (because "I'm back from doing whatever Liz Lemon said!" wasn't sufficient enough), Liz ALMOST saves the day.
-->'''Liz Lemon''': ''(makes snake motion with hand and wiggles tongue)''
-->'''Tracy''': My cobra, Ramsey...
-->'''Liz''': ''(mimes getting sick)''
-->'''Tracy''': Yeah, it got sick, so I took it to the vet.
-->'''Liz''': ''(gives him a thumbs up and nods)''
-->'''Tracy''': And then my thumb got caught in my butt so I nodded my head until it came out.
* In ''{{Series/Extras}}'', a journalist is interviewing Maggie under the pretense that she is Andy's assistant. Andy sits behind the journalist and tries to mime answers to her that will make him look good. Maggie constantly misunderstands his mimes, giving bizarre and unflattering answers.

-->'''Ellie:''' ''(sarcastically)'' Oh, my God! You were attacked by a ''bear''?!
-->''(Chuck makes the "cut" motion on his neck)''
-->'''Devon:''' Yeah, and I j... I... cut off its head!
-->''(Chuck {{facepalm}}s)''
-->'''Devon:''' Yeah, babe, I... I had to decapitate the bear. In self-defense! In order to survive! I'm just glad you weren't there to see it. [[{{Pun}} It was really grisly.]]

* ''Series/{{Danger 5}}'', a spoof of 1960's TV spy series. Claire is being [[BatheHerAndBringHerToMe led away by enemy soldiers]].
-->'''Claire:''' [winking] [subtitle: Stay on mission. We can handle ourselves.]
-->'''Tucker:''' [winking back] [subtitle: What?]

-->'''Colbert''': Oh no, Jon. They won't be effective at all. ''(Wink)''\\
'''Stewart''': All right. So they won't be... they won't be effective at all?\\
'''Colbert''': Not at all, Jon! ''(Wink)''\\
'''Stewart''': ...Are you coming on to me in a sexual way?\\
'''Colbert''': Not at all, Jon! ''(Wink)''

-->'''Interviewer:''' Who's your favourite President?
-->'''Zack:''' That's easy. President Carter.
-->'''Interviewer:''' Why?
-->'''Zack:''' "Why?"? He uh...(Cody raises his hands up) builds...builds houses. Builds houses for... (Cody puts a napkin on his head) nus! Builds houses for nuns. Builds his houses for (Cody walks around with his back down) old people? (Cody shivers) Cold people. Builds houses for (Cody walks around wierdly) poor people? (Cody gives a disapproving look) Builds houses for poor people.

[[folder:Oral Tradition]]
* The classic old joke in which the Pope and a representative of the Jewish community debate each other in mime. ([[http://www.scripting.com/98/04/stories/moisheAndThePope.html link]])
* There's an old linguist joke about a linguist who is trying to learn a culture's language. Everything they point at has the same word in that language. At first the linguist thinks they have discovered a language consisting of a single word... Until they learn that the word they've been hearing is the culture's word for "finger".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* Bad case for R2 in [[http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0171.html this]] ''Webcomic/DarthsAndDroids'' strip, because Anakin can't understand R2's beep, first he thinks R2 talks about [[TimmyInAWell Timmy In A Gravity Well]], then the worse came:
-->'''Anakin:''' You want me to eject you into space?
-->'''[SFX]:''' < boop! > < boop! > < boop! >
-->'''Anakin:''' So that's a yes?
** Note this is also [[HeroicComedicSociopath Annie]] being a JerkAss.
*** She's getting good at that

* Mime from ''WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends'' is not incapable of speech, but he chooses not to out of showmanship. This includes when calling 911 in "Who's To Flame?", with predictable results.

-->'''Skipper:''' Well we were, uh, buh...
--> '''Kowalski:''' ''(makes sweeping gesture towards his beak)''
-->'''Skipper:''' We were, uh, er, punching ourselves...?
--> '''Kowalski:''' ''(shakes head, brings his flipper up to his beak and imitates eating)''
--> '''Skipper:''' Eating our flippers?
--> '''Kowalski:''' ''(facepalms)''

-->'''Doofenshmirtz:''' (watching Perry's gestures) "Oh, well let's see...we could rub our stomachs, and point to our mouths, and later we can roll our eyes and [[FacePalm put our heads in our hands...]]"

* In ''Disney/TheEmperorsNewGroove'', Yzma's plan to poison Kuzco has failed, instead turning him into a llama. Kuzco hasn't noticed, and continues their dinner conversation. Yzma starts beating two pieces of broccoli together, trying to tell Kronk to knock him out. He thinks she's just asking for more broccoli. Yzma finally gets the message across by pounding her palm with her fist.

* In ''Disney/LiloAndStitch'', Lilo's sister tries to prompt Lilo from behind the social worker's back. It all goes well until Lilo misinterprets an enthusiastic gesture, a five-finger "stop" reaction, and a face palm as "I get... disciplined? Five times a day, with bricks!"

** Becomes a CrowningMomentOfFunny when, after Dodge starts over and seemingly gets his point across, Sonar misinterprets the order and ''starts making the whale noises himself''. [[spoiler: And it ''works''.]]

* ''Series/RedDwarf'': In "Dear Dave", Cat attempts to convey his news to the rest of the crew through charades (because he is bored). His attempt to mime 'the mail-pod has arrived and crashed into my clothes' is construed by the others as everything from 'we're about to fly into a black hole' to 'we're being attacked by zombies'.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Homer at the Bat", Homer is playing baseball on the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant team, and Mr Burns is the manager. Unfortunately, Homer zones out while Mr Burns is explaining what the signals are, and later, when Homer is up to bat, Mr Burns starts doing a series of strange actions. Homer has no idea what he's trying to say, and gets hit in the head with the ball and knocked out as a result.

* "The Unicorn and the Wasp", an episode of ''Series/DoctorWho'', has a similar situation of Charades under pressure. [[spoiler:As the Doctor tries to flush cyanide out of his system, he has to silently ask for a list of seemingly random things to help detoxify himself. Donna has a great deal of trouble with this, interpreting "salt" (represented with a shaking fist, i.e. sprinkling salt on food) as a cocktail shaker ("What do you want, a Harvey Wallbanger?") and "a shock" as a song (for which she suggests "Camptown Races?")]]

* An episode of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' involved demons who stole everyone's ability to speak, forcing the heroes to communicate with each other through pantomime. While brainstorming on how they might slay the demons, Buffy shrugs and nonchalantly pumps her hand up and down in the air in front of her, drawing looks of startled disbelief from her friends. Embarrassed at their reactions, she pulls a wooden stake out of her bag and repeats the motion. Everyone gets it. Later, Buffy tries to signal to Riley that he needs to smash the box on a table that's holding all the voices inside it. Riley thinks she means the crystal next to it and hits that, then grins like a dope at her before an exasperated Buffy makes more specific gestures.

* MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic: In a case of both this and ShownTheirWork, this is why the ponies are afraid of Zecora when she first goes to Ponyville. She digs her hoof into the ground, which is something that zebras do in real life to search for water. Unfortunately for her, for horses, this is a threat gesture. When Twilight goes to meet her, the other ponies warn her that Zecora is "scary and threatening". She WAS, it was just due to a misunderstanding rather than malicious intent.

* ''Series/{{Jessie}}'': In "101 Lizards", Ravi finds that he cannot handle raising all of Mrs Kibling's 12 babies and eventually gives them away to a nice woman named Cassandra, who claims that the lizards will be be living a farm upstate. Bertram starts talking about a time his goldfish died and his parents flushed it under the pretense of it going to live in a "farm upstate". Jessie waves her hands repeatedly to get him to stop talking, but he continues anyway abd Ravi faints in horror. He then wakes up thinking it was AllJustADream and Jessie repeatedly waves her hands again before Luke can correct him that it wasn't a dream, but Luke does so anyway worrying Ravi even more. Jessie eventually gives up and says "Apparently, I need a new signal!"

* ''Series/DogWithABlog'': Tyler has to pretend to be a dog whisperer so that Niki doesn't find out Stan's secret. He can't figure out what's wrong with Nikki's dog, Evita, but Stan sees that she has a bur in her paw and must tell Tyler without alerting Nikki. He jesticulates his paw but Tyler gets it wrong. Stan then writes it on the wall, but since he's a dog he doesn't know how to write. Finally, Stan calls Tyler.