History Main / RepeatedRehearsalFailure

* A '90s Sega Genesis commercial used this. The girl tells her dad she wants Sega Genesis OR Game Gear with a ''VideoGame/TheLionKing'' game included for Christmas, and he keeps repeating it, but keeps screwing it up, especially as he sees things in the store...."Mega Pegasus for Reindeer"....By the end of the ad, he's forgotten it altogether. "Seggy?"

* Sulley in ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'' tries repeating to himself where he should deliver Mike's paperwork. He messes up, then subverts the trope by correcting his mistake.

* In ''[[Film/EvilDead Army of Darkness]]'', the wizard who knows the all-important incantation, KlaatuBaradaNikto, tries to get Ash to drill on it and forces Ash to repeat it a few times. Because Ash is rather cocky and arrogant, (and hates looking bad at things) he refuses to keep repeating it after those first few times and insists that he knows the words. By the time Ash reaches [[TomeOfEldritchLore the Necronomicon]] after a harrowing trip through [[LeakingCanOfEvil a land that has been tainted by the book's presence]], complete with an unnerving BodyHorror experience, Ash almost forgets he even needs to say the incantation before moving the book, and when he tries to say the incantation he mispronounces the second word and completely blanks on the third.

** One arc (which was adapted for the special ''It's Christmas Time Again, Charlie Brown'') has Sally constantly rehearse her line for the Christmas, being the single word "Hark!" On the night of the actual performance, with Charlie Brown and Linus in the audience, she suddenly exclaims "Hockey stick!", much to her dismay and humiliation.

** In one strip, it was Valentine's Day and Charlie Brown was going to give Violet a box of chocolates. On his way to meet her, he kept rehearsing, "This is for you, Violet. Happy Valentine's Day. This is for YOU, Violet. Happy Valentine's Day. THIS is for YOU, Violet. Happy Valentine's Day." When he arrived, he handed her the box of chocolates and said, "This is for you, Violet. Merry Christmas." In the last panel, he was [[HeadDesk bashing his head against a tree]].
** In another arc (which showed up in the special ''It's Christmas Time Again, Charlie Brown''), Sally was constantly rehearsing her line for the Christmas play, the single word "Hark!" On the night of the actual performance, with Charlie Brown and Linus in the audience, she suddenly exclaims "Hockey stick!", much to her dismay and humiliation.
* In a ''[[Magazine/{{MAD}} MAD Magazine]]'' Lighter Side feature by Dave Berg, a woman oversleeps on a workday and decides on an excuse for her boss. "I'm sorry I'm late, Mr. Dilly, but my car had a flat tire and the train ran late." She repeats it over and over on the way to the office. But when she finally gets there she ends up saying:
-->"I'm sorry I'm late, Mr. Car, but my Dilly ran late and the train had a flat tire."

-->'''Mike:''' The pink copies go to accounting, the fuchsia ones go to purchasing, the goldenrod ones go to Roz. Leave the puce.
-->''[one SmashCut later]''
-->'''Sulley:''' Pink copies go to accounting, fuchsia ones go to Roz. ''[{{Beat}}]'' [[SubvertedTrope No]], the fuchsia ones go to ''purchasing'', the ''goldenrod'' ones go to Roz. Man, I have no idea what puce is. ''[He looks at the colors]'' Oh, ''that's'' puce.

* Early on in ''Film/TheGodfather'', Luca Brasi repeatedly practices his speech to Don Corleone thanking him for inviting him to the wedding of his daughter. But when he delivers the speech, he instead thanks Corleone for inviting him to his daughter. The interesting thing about this is that [[ThrowItIn it's a genuine mistake on the part of the actor]]. Lenny Montana was so nervous about working with Creator/MarlonBrando that he flubbed the line and the director added another scene where Brasi practiced his speech.

* The children's book ''Don't Forget the Bacon!'' had a boy go shopping for his mother with the instructions, "Six farm eggs, a cake for tea, a pound of pears, and don't forget the bacon." On the way, the boy repeatedly reminds himself of these, but ends up mis-remembering and rhyming words (at one point thinking to himself, "Six fat legs, a cape for me, a flight of stairs, and don't forget the bacon."), and finds himself going to a junk shop and requesting, "Six clothes pegs, a rake for leaves, and a pile of chairs, please." On the way home, he conveniently encounters the items he's actually supposed to get and gets them... except the bacon.

* One episode of ''Series/SteptoeAndSon'' has Harold practicing for a play and there is a line about his character owning "a string of polo ponies", however in rehearsals his father keeps running the phrase polo ponies together as poloponies [=[phonetic "pol-lop-pawnies"]=] and he and Harold get into a fight about the correct way to say it. Come the night of the play, Harold still manages to repeat that mistake on stage.

* Creator/RobinWilliams relates an encounter with the police while stoned. He psyches himself up by repeatedly rehearsing the line "what seems to be the problem, Officer?" before the cop walks up to his window. When the cop actually gets there, Robin just unleashes a random string of gibberish. Lucky for Robin that it was just [[MushroomSamba a marijuana-induced hallucination]], and he was actually still laying on his couch.

* The 1936 cartoon ''[[WesternAnimation/BettyBoop Betty Boop and Little Jimmy]]'' by Creator/FleischerStudios has Betty using a reducing machine (an electric motor agitates a leather belt, purported to jiggle body fat away). The machine's control switch gets broken, leaving Betty with no way to turn the device off. She sends tot Little Jimmy to fetch an electrician. Being a young lad, Jimmy is easily distracted, and his mantra, "Gotta find an electrician, an electrician," devolves into seeking a musician, a politician, then a magician. Purely by accident, Little Jimmy returns alone, but stumbles over the electric cord, stopping the machine. Poor Betty is pencil-thin at this point. This cartoon is now in the PublicDomain, and appears in many expired copyright compilations.
* ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'' has a short where Jon and his pets go to the mall to do a purchase. Because the parking is too complicated, an automated voice tells newly-arrived customers where they parked (it's a combination of color and space number). Unfortunately for Jon, when he gets on the elevator to go the main floor, several other patrons are there, all of them complaining loudly about things such as prices or the bad color of the outfit they bought. By the time Jon gets off he has already forgotten, and the last gag of the short is Jon, very late into the night, still wandering the parking lot looking for his car.

** In "Stuck in a Tree", Arnold, Harold, and Eugene are stranded on top of a tree in the park. When Chocolate Boy walks pass, they wave him over and instruct him to "Go to the fire station, tell them [they're] stuck in a tree, and ''don't stop for chocolate!''" When Chocolate Boy walks off, he repeats the instructions to himself but mixes them up: "Go to the fire station, tell them they're stuck at a tree, don't stop for chocolate. Go to the tree, tell them they're stuck at the fire station, don't stop except for chocolate..." Harold sighs in defeat: "He's not coming back is he?" [[spoiler:By the end of the episode, he actually does come back with the fire department.]]

[[folder:Jokes]]
* There is a famous Russian joke (or urban legend) about a beginner actor who was, in his first performance, to say the single sentence "Volobuyev, here's your sword!" ("Volobuyev, vot vash mech!"). Everyone was joking that he will say not "Volobuyev" but "Volokhuyev" (''khuy'' being a very obscene word for "dick"). So he practiced all day, and when his time came, said... "Volobuyev, here's your dick!" ("Volobuyev, vot vash khuy!")
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film - Animated]]

-->'''Mike''': The pink copies go to accounting, the fuchsia ones go to purchasing, the goldenrod ones go to Roz. Leave the puce.
-->''[One SmashCut later]''
--> '''Sulley''': Pink copies go to accounting, fuchsia ones go to Roz. ''[{{Beat}}]'' [[SubvertedTrope No]], the fuchsia ones go to ''purchasing'', the ''goldenrod'' ones go to Roz. Man, I have no idea what puce is. ''[He looks at the colors]'' Oh, ''that's'' puce.

[[folder:Film - Live Action]]

[[folder:LiveActionTV]]

[[folder:NewspaperComics]]
* ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'':
** In one strip, it was Valentine's Day and Charlie Brown was going to give Violet a box of chocolates. On his way to meet her, he kept rehearsing, "This is for you, Violet. Happy Valentine's Day. This is for YOU, Violet. Happy Valentine's Day. THIS is for YOU, Violet. Happy Valentine's Day." When he arrived, he handed her the box of chocolates and said, "This is for you, Violet. Merry Christmas." In the last panel, he was [[HeadDesk bashing his head against a tree]].
** In another arc (which showed up in the special ''It's Christmas Time Again, Charlie Brown''), Sally was constantly rehearsing her line for the Christmas play, the single word "Hark!" On the night of the actual performance, with Charlie Brown and Linus in the audience, she suddenly exclaims "Hockey stick!", much to her dismay and humiliation.
* In a ''[[Magazine/{{MAD}} MAD Magazine]]'' Lighter Side feature by Dave Berg, a woman oversleeps on a workday and decides on an excuse for her boss. "I'm sorry I'm late, Mr. Dilly, but my car had a flat tire and the train ran late." She repeats it over and over on the way to the office. But when she finally gets there she ends up saying:
-->"I'm sorry I'm late, Mr. Car, but my Dilly ran late and the train had a flat tire."
[[/folder]]

* PlayedForLaughs in ''Series/RaumschiffGamestar'', specifically in the RealTrailerFakeMovie for its fake "reboot", where the AlternateUniverse version of Captain Langer repeatedly attempts to get Prime!Langer's catchphrase right, but always messes up in hilariously rhyming ways. The original Captain's catchphrase is "Wir werden alle sterben!" (German for "We are all going to die!"), while the AU!Captain's attempts included "Wir werden alle werben" ("We are all going to advertise"), "Wir werden alle erben" ("We are all going to inherit"), "Wir werden Haare färben" ("We are going to dye hair"), and "Wir werden alle Serben" ("We are all going to become Serbs").

* PlayedForLaughs in ''Series/RaumschiffGamestar'', specifically in the RealTrailerFakeMovie for its fake "reboot", where the AlternateUniverse version of Captain Langer repeatedly attempts to get Prime!Langer's CatchPhrase right, but always messes up in hilariously rhyming ways. The original Captain's CatchPhrase is "Wir werden alle sterben!" (German for "We are all going to die!"), while the AU!Captain's attempts included "Wir werden alle werben" ("We are all going to advertise"), "Wir werden alle erben" ("We are all going to inherit"), "Wir werden Haare färben" ("We are going to dye hair"), and "Wir werden alle Serben" ("We are all going to become Serbs").

[[folder: Film - Animated]]

[[folder: Film - Live Action]]

-->'''Peter:''' ''[Skipping down the road]'' A loaf of bread, a container of milk, and a stick of butter.\\