History Main / PhoneyCall

* In ''TheMurderOfRogerAckroyd'', the murderer does this to help set up his alibi.

* Alice is a cable girl who came to connect Bob's previously unplugged and non-functional telephone to the network.

* ''GhostWhisperer'': Melinda is on a road trip with Jim, who for plot reasons doesn't know at the moment that she's a psychic. When a ghost shows up in the car, Melinda pretends to take a phone call so she can talk to him.

* In one of ''TheSimpsons'' Christmas episodes, Bart and Lisa have to sneak past security guard Gary Coleman who is having an animated phone conversation. Lisa notices that the phone isn't even plugged in.

* In another ''CalvinAndHobbes'' strip, Calvin lies to his babysitter, Rosalyn, about feeling sick. Rosalyn sees through this and calls the automatic time service, pretending that she's speaking with Calvin's doctor. She then tells Calvin that Doc wants Calvin to take a teaspoon of castor oil and lie down all evening.

* In ''{{Dilbert}}'', Wally once gets a hands-free and goes around PHB, shouting insults in his face, pretending that he actually talks to his mother. Personal calls have been forbidden in the Path-E-Tech Management ever since.

* ''{{Leverage}}'', "The Ice Man Job": Hardison, in over his head on a con, tells a mark he has to call his girlfriend, then calls Sophie and manages to signal to her that he's in trouble.

* Used in ''[[{{Torchwood}} Torchwood: Miracle Day]]'' by Esther as an excuse for following Maloney. He instantly knows she's lying [[spoiler: since Esther claims to be talking to Vera on the phone, but Maloney had just killed her]] and Esther quickly figures out he's up to no good.

* Used in [[{{Torchwood}} Torchwood: Miracle Day]] by Esther as an excuse for following Maloney. He instantly knows she's lying [[spoiler: since Esther claims to be talking to Vera on the phone, but Maloney had just killed her]] and Esther quickly figures out he's up to no good.

[[AC:LiveAvtionTV]]

* ''{{Hustle}}''. In "Father of the Jewels", Sean is with the mark when he calls Mickey and starts acting like he is talking to nursing home. Mickey is initially confused but quickly figures out that Sean is letting him know that they urgently need to set a nursing home for the next stage of the con.

* Laurie does this in ''[[OurFairiesAreDifferent Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles: A Giant Problem]]''. Nick's [[AdultsAreUseless dad]] doesn't want [[StrangeGirl Laurie]] and [[UnfazedEveryman Nick]] going to the beach without supervision, so Laurie fakes a call to [[AloofBigBrother Jules]] to ask him to babysit them. She tells their parents that Jules agreed, and they are none the wiser as she and Nick go off to hunt giants with [[JackTheGiantKiller Noseeum Jack]].

* In ''Series/TheITCrowd'', Jen is pretending to be busy, so she makes Roy wait till she finishes her phone call. When she asks him what he wants, he replies that he came to connect her telephone.

** A young man is just starting up his own law firm. On the morning of his very first day in business, a man comes to the door. Just before he enters the office, the lawyer (wanting to impress this client) picks up the phone and shouts into it: "$100,000* is my final offer! I'm a very busy man, you know, and my time doesn't come cheap. You don't like it? Fine, then, you can just go find yourself another lawyer!" He slams down the phone and turns to the other man. "Now, what can I do for you?" he asks. The other man replies, "Uh, I was just here to hook up the phone."

* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pE76zTsRno This scene]] from ''ThirtyRock''.

* In ''ITCrowd'', Jen is pretending to be busy, so she makes Roy wait till she finishes her phone call. When she asks him what he wants, he replies that he came to connect her telephone.

* ''BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'': In "Menace of the Conquerer Caveman!", Booster Gold pretends to take a call from Batman during a meeting with a toy company. No one buys it.

* Laurie does this in ''[[OurFairiesAreDifferent Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles: A Giant Problem]]''. Nick's [[AdultsAreUseless dad]] doesn't want [[StrangeGirl Laurie]] and [[TheArthurDent Nick]] going to the beach without supervision, so Laurie fakes a call to [[AloofBigBrother Jules]] to ask him to babysit them. She tells their parents that Jules agreed, and they are none the wiser as she and Nick go off to hunt giants with [[JackTheGiantKiller Noseeum Jack]].

* In an episode of ''{{Scrubs}}'' Eliot overhears Dr Kelso talking about his enforced retirement on his cellphone. She later learns that the bathroom doesn't have cellphone reception - this was his way of asking her for help.
* In ''TheMuppetsWizardOfOz'', Toto has declared himself to be Dorothy's agent, and is apparently calling someone about a gig. Dorothy's reaction: "That isn't even a real phone!"
* A couple of times in ''QuantumLeap'', Sam picks up a phone without calling anybody, so that he can have a conversation with the InvisibleToNormals Al in front of other people.
* In ''TheMurderOfRogerAckroyd'', the murderer does this to help set up his alibi.
* There's a well-known lawyer joke along these lines:
** A young man is just starting up his own law firm. On the morning of his very first day in business, a man comes to the door. Just before he enters the office, the lawyer (wanting to impress this client) picks up the phone and shouts into it: "$100,000* is my final offer! I'm a very busy man, you know, and my time doesn't come cheap. You don't like it? Fine, then, you can just go find yourself another lawyer!" He slams down the phone and turns to the other man. "Now, what can I do for you?" he asks. The other man replies, "Uh, I was just here to hook up the phone."
* On ''JustShootMe'', Maya is at Nina's birthday party when she sees Nina have a conversation on a pay phone that was out of order. Turns out Nina was upset about many of her former colleages not coming and was faking a phone call to save face.
* In an episode of MalcolmInTheMiddle, Dewey pretends to be talking on the phone to their mother in order to get Reese and Malcolm to do what he wants, which they think are orders from their mother. Fails when the phone rings as he is talking.
* In one of ''TheSimpsons'' Christmas episodes, Bart and Lisa have to sneak past security guard Gary Coleman who is having an animated phone conversation. Lisa notices that the phone isn't even plugged in.
* Happens frequently on ''{{Frasier}}'' -- in one episode, Frasier attempts to get out of a date by pretending he's getting an emergency call from his brother, in another, he and his ex-wife simultaneously make non-calls to "cancel" other dates that they don't actually have.
* At one time there was a series of advertisements for a building society, starring StephenFry and HughLaurie. In one, Laurie calls their telephone banking service. Fry, whose character [[AnythingYouCanDoICanDoBetter always has to go one better]], claims his bank has one too, calls it, and requests his balance -- though we see at the other end of the line there is only a telephone ringing in an empty office.
* ''GhostWhisperer'': Melinda is on a road trip with Jim, who for plot reasons doesn't know at the moment that she's a psychic. When a ghost shows up in the car, Melinda pretends to take a phone call so she can talk to him.

!!Examples of Type B:
* In an episode of ''{{CSI}}'', Grissom is taken off a case and Nick covertly calls him to discuss the investigation; when caught, he pretends he's talking to his girlfriend, leaving Grissom somewhat puzzled on the other end.

* BreakingBad makes particular use of this whenever Walt talks to Jessie in the first two seasons.
* In the [[http://marcel-oehler.marcellosendos.ch/comics/ch/1989/01/19890123.gif January 23, 1989]] CalvinAndHobbes strip, Calvin momentarily pretends to be calling Susie about homework as his mom passes through when he's actually trying to purchase power tools.

* One scene of ''Speed Zone'' has Jack pretend that he cleared his team's entry into the race by pretending to phone his boss. The little old lady he actually calls hangs up in confusion.

* ''ShockTreatment'': Judge Oliver Wright and Betty Hapschatt at adjacent pay phones to cover up the fact that they're actually talking to each other while listening in on a conversation between some nearby bad guys.

* In an episode of MalcolmInTheMiddle, Dewey pretends to be talking on the phone to their mother in order to get Reese and Malcom to do what he wants, which they think are orders from their mother. Fails when the phone rings as he is talking.

* In another ''CalvinAndHobbes'' strip, Calvin lies to his babysitter, Roslyn, about feeling sick. Roslyn sees through this and calls the automatic time service, pretending that she's speaking with Calvin's doctor. She then tells Calvin that Doc wants Calvin to take a teaspoon of castor oil and lie down all evening.

** Charlie walks into the room (not on the phone)

** Carol screws everything up by walking into the room and asking "Why did you just call me Charlie?"
** Charlie walks into the room, clearly not on the phone, while Bob is still 'talking' to him and asks "who are you talking to, Bob?"