History Main / OutOfContextEavesdropping

* ''Series/YoungSheldon'': In "A Proper Wedding and Skeletons in the Closet", as Mary and George discuss Connie running a gambling room without their knowledge, Sheldon overhears them talking about "skeletons in the closet." Having been told by Missy that there's a corpse buried in their yard, Sheldon starts to think it's real and digs it up.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' episode "Arthur and the Real Mr. Ratburn", Arthur and Buster, upon overhearing Mr. Ratburn talking on the phone where he states he needs "boys' heads", [[LiteralMinded thinks that he actually wants]] [[OffWithHisHead boy's heads]]. [[spoiler:It's not until after they follow him around and into a carnival that he meant heads to make puppets for his show.]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* In ''Film/{{Argylle}}'', Elly accidentally hears Aiden say "Elly Conway needs a bullet to the head" and naturally assumes he's planning to kill her. [[spoiler:What he actually is that he hates "Elly" because it's a fake personality, and he's in love with her real self, Rachel Kelly.]]

** In "Party of One", Pinkie Pie overhears everypony else in the Mane Six planning ''something'' without her, and they even say at one point "If Pinkie Pie finds out, everything will be ruined!" She concludes that they don't want her as a friend anymore, but they are really just throwing a surprise party in her honor. There's also the line "Can you believe she was planning on throwing a party today? Obviously this will be so much better," which plays to the impression that they don't want to come to a second party in a row, but it really meant "Can you believe she's planning on throwing some random other party ''on her own birthday''?" (which she had totally forgotten about).

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Arcane}}'', Powder spies on Vi and Mylo arguing about her after she lost their loot from a robbery, and runs off upset when Vi agrees that there are a lot of things she can't do. Had she stayed a little longer she'd have learned Vi was building up to listing, as things Powder "can't do", the ways Mylo had messed up the heist himself, such as boasting about their haul thus instigating the fight where Powder lost it.
** [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]]: This becomes less of a one-off and more of a defining character trait, as Jinx's bitterness and insecurity lead her to repeatedly spy on the people close to her, and misinterpret their words or actions uncharitably, always leading her to personal tragedy.

* One episode of ''Series/NedsDeclassifiedSchoolSurvivalGuide'' centers around a rumor that Ned likes Moze from a comment he made earlier. What he meant was he liked calling her the nickname Moze.

** In another episode, "Wedding Bell Blues", Garfield and Odie overhears Jon talking with his cousin about her upcoming wedding, but Garfield thinks Jon is the fiance due to her saying her new name will be "Marian John" after the wedding, which Garfield misinterprets as "marrying Jon". This makes him start efforts to sabotage the wedding since marriage leads to kids that'll torture him.

* This happens in ''Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms'', during one of [[AntiHero Cao Cao's]] earliest chapters. Cao Cao evaded the tyrant Dong Zhuo after a failed assasination, and is taking refuge in a farm belonging to civilains opposing Dong Zhuo as well; spending a night there, Cao Cao wakes up to use the loo and overhears a conversation between the farmers that "they'll tie up that pig and kill it", leading to Cao Cao assuming the farmers are agents working for the tyrant, where he then ambushes and kills everyone, including [[WouldHurtAChild children]]. It was then Cao Cao enters the stables and sees a tied-up pig, meant to ''his'' breakfast since the farmers recognize Cao Cao as a valuable ally, leading to Cao Cao going MyGodWhatHaveIDone

* This happens in ''Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms'', during one of [[AntiHero Cao Cao's]] earliest chapters. Cao Cao evaded the tyrant Dong Zhuo after a failed assasination, and is taking refuge in a farm belonging to civilains opposing Dong Zhuo as well; spending a night there, Cao Cao wakes up to use the loo and overhears a conversation between the farmers that "they'll tie up that pig and kill it", leading to Cao Cao assuming the farmers are agents working for the tyrant, where he then ambushes and kills everyone, including [[WouldHurtAChild children]]. It was then Cao Cao enters the stables and sees a tied-up pig, meant to ''his'' breakfast since the farmers recognize Cao Cao as a valuable ally, leading to CaoCao going MyGodWhatHaveIDone

* ''WebAnimation/EtraChanSawIt'':

* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': Miko overheard Lord Shojo discussing the fact that he told his paladins some lies, and concluded that he betrayed the city. He actually told those lies because the paladins are so traditional, they wouldn't let him do what he thought was needed to save the whole world.

* In an episode of ''Series/TheMuppetShow'', Fozzie keeps hearing remarks that sound like the others want to get rid of him and only Gonzo is on his side. Of course, ''we'' know that the bear in question is Gonzo's teddy bear, but Fozzie doesn't find this out until the end of the episode, when Kermit reassures him that he never intends to fire Fozzie.