History Main / ScriptSwap

* This is a favorite trick of Garfield in ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends''. He's done it with--among other things--the cue cards for an exercise show (page quote), a disc jockey's advertisement, and a list of pet tricks for a cat show.

* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'': In "I Scream, You Scream", Phineas and Ferb plans to build a machine that makes a giant sundae for Isabella, while Doofenshmirtz works on his Space-Laser-Inator to destroy a billboard in front of his building (among other things). At the end of the episode, it was revealed that the blueprints for Phineas and Ferb's sundae machine and Doofenshmirtz's Space-Laser-Inator were accidentally switched at the blueprint shop, with none of them having a clue that they're building each other's plans as they follow along with the blueprints they got.

--> '''Andy:''' I've never liked this cookbook. The pages always stick together.

--> '''Jason:''' Wolf Blitzer's about to say "Fear me" in Klingon.

* ''Fanfic/CheckmateAnlashok'' (by Creator/AnlaShok): During the 64th Hunger Games, the Capitol Rebels hack into the teleprompter of Claudius Templesmith's predecessor as he recites the Hunger Games. Partially due to being high on drugs, it takes him a painfully long time to notice that he's revealing the overt acts of Rebellion that the Capitol has been trying to cover up, resulting in his [[UncertainDoom removal from the job]].
--> '''Announcer:''' Could it be, the sister of a previous victor, breaking through? Not that we'd complain. Look at that vixen. Switching to the outliers, [[MoodWhiplash now start listening, because this is what you wanted]]. District One's gold miners blew up the mine last winter, yes that's the miners in Distract One. [[PayEvilUntoEvil District Six poisoned the pesticides to protest against the increased repression, hundreds were ill or worse in the District, but thirty died in the Capitol]] and you can bet District Six's two tributes [[ExecutiveMeddling weren't reaped by accident]]. In District Seven, five main peacekeeper posts were eaten away by termites, and District Eight ruined whole shipments of expensive evening wear, it was panic over here last month. The Rebellion lives, [[YouAreNotAlone they lie and make you think you're alone with your doubts and anger]]. They will keep the information from you, but the rebellion lives in every district. Panem isn't under control like [[PresidentEvil they]] would make you belie- [[DelayedReaction what the hell am I reading?]] [[OhCrap Who wrote that?]]

--> '''Mr Spooner:''' Hello little Nell, let me hold you in my arms.\\

* ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain'' has a variant that turns into a straight example. Pinky is running for president, and during a debate, Brain is feeding him lines through a pair of teleprompter glasses. When Pinky is asked the meaning of "[[VerbalTic Narf]]", which Pinky has been throwing into his answers randomly (as he does), Brain improvises... but his keyboard sticks, causing Pinky to say that it's the "North American Ratified Fffffffff..." [[OverlyLongGag going on long enough that even Pinky looks embarrassed.]] That's the variant. Now on to the straight example: Brain then destroys his computer out of rage, and its antenna starts picking up random signals from nearby displays. Pinky dutifully repeats everything displayed to him... which, fortunately enough for Pinky, actually work for answers to the questions he's posed.

** In "A Date with Jet Screamer", Judy enters a songwriting contest to win a date with teen heartthrob Jet Screamer, with George intentionally replacing her entry with Elroy's secret code message in order to sabotage her. This turns out to be a SpringtimeForHitler as the coded message ("Eeep, Opp, Ork, Ahah") causes Judy to win.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* In ''Anime/BattleGirlsTimeParadox'', when the girls put on a play, [[BitchInSheepsClothing Ieyasu]] changes Nobunaga's script so she will assault the others, ''during an orgy scene''. Nobunaga notices that script seems different, but shrugs it off. Before Ieyasu's plan can succeed, the stage catches fire, forcing everybody to run.

[[folder:Comics]]
* A slightly inventive version is performed with two typewriters in a ''ComicStrip/SpyVsSpy'' comic.

[[folder: Fan Works]]

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* In ''Film/ANightAtTheOpera'', Chico and Harpo swap the sheet music of an entire orchestra so that they all start playing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" in the middle of the opera. Chico and Harpo then start throwing a baseball in the pit and Groucho acts as a peanut vendor.

* In ''Film/ScaryMovie3'', there's a scene in which two characters type conflicting information into a teleprompter, followed by a technician typing in rude words just for laughs. The newscaster reads it all (including gibberish such as the output from just sitting on the keyboard) with a completely straight face.
* Invoked in ''Film/BruceAlmighty'', with Bruce making another newscaster go completely off script, the writing staff desperately trying to get him back on track.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': In "Poetry Mix-up", a love poem intended for Harriet Conklin is given to Mr. Conklin by mistake.
* On ''Series/TheWestWing'', President Bartlett is forced to nominate complete non-entity "Bingo Bob" as a replacement V.P. to avoid a long confirmation battle, and his speech writers complain bitterly, going so far as to pen a resounding denunciation of this ridiculous lobbyist lapdog. [[HilarityEnsues Inevitably]], it ends up on the president's teleprompter by mistake. In a double subversion, Bartlett merely gives a surprised blink and then improvises a glowing introduction, because he is just that awesome. (And the V.P. actually requests a copy, saying he needs to be aware of what people are thinking of him.)
* In ''{{Series/Seinfeld}}'', when Jerry and George got their mentoring notes mixed up, Bania ends up doing a brilliant stand-up routine about corporate risk management, and George gives a lecture to his colleagues about Ovaltine.

* In one episode of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', a computer glitch replaces the text of a play with some of [[spoiler:Data]]'s poetry. Fortunately, they notice this during rehearsal.
* Done in an episode of ''Series/MurderSheWrote'' with an aging actor whose memory is so bad he has to rely on the teleprompter. While this looks like an EngineeredPublicConfession, it is actually a ploy on Jessica Fletcher's part to trick the real killer into exposing themselves.

* In ''Series/AreYouBeingServed'', when the staff are performing a radio play over CB radio
--> '''Mr Spooner:''' Hello little Nell, let me hold you in my arms.\\
'''Mrs Slocombe:''' Ooh haven't you got a whopper!\\
'''Mr Humphries:''' Cut!... You've turned over two pages, that's when he's out fishing and he pulls out the big pike.

* Creator/TelltaleGames loves this trope.
** Episode 102 of ''VideoGame/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice'' does this when swapping a set of game show question cards with an easier set of questions. Possibly justified in that since Hugh Bliss isn't the normal host, he probably has no idea what the questions are supposed to be.
*** Episode 104 of the same series does the same thing with a series of cue cards for UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln's statements on the issues. Abe must ''really'' not be paying attention, since the poster and the sign used for the swaps look nothing like the normal cue cards in terms of font and layout... maybe this one relies on RuleOfFunny.
*** Episode 205 has a grocery list swapped with a list of swear words. To be fair, both of them ''are'' written on official stationery.
** ''VideoGame/StrongBadsCoolGameForAttractivePeople'':
*** Strong Bad attempts to sabotage the Two-O Duo's dance routines this way by manipulating the records in their set list (including introducing new ones), combining this trope with ProgrammingGame. Coach Z, the target of your sabotage, is ''just'' smart enough to avoid dancing off the stage, but still not smart enough to stop himself from [[spoiler:air-punching his partner Bubs square in the face]] if that's what the music suggests.
*** He also attempts to sabotage Pomstar. Homestar is still new to being a singer, so Pom Pom is reminding him what the words are through a set of headphones. The headphones pick up radio signals other than Pom Pom's, though (you can have Homestar repeat what Strong Sad says into a walkie-talkie), so you need to have Strong Bad put an antenna in the nonsense-spewing Blubbo's Whale speaker, so Homestar will repeat the Whale's nonsense.
** This is done on two levels in the second episode of ''VideoGame/BackToTheFutureTheGame'', where Marty has to swap the sheet music at the piano so Cue Ball plays just the right music to change the mood so a drunken officer will get in the mood to talk to him. Then when he needs a more inspirational song than the club has to offer, Marty gets the lyrics to such a song, swaps them for Trixie's lyrics to her own song, then changes the piano music so Trixie's song is played. Possibly justified in the latter case in that the two songs have ''really'' similar lyrics, and Trixie explicitly hasn't memorized hers.
* The image is from the first ''VideoGame/SpyFox'' game, where the player has to do this to get tango music playing so Russian Blue will dance.

* Sims in Politics in ''VideoGame/TheSims2'' can sometimes receive a chance card that says their speech was replaced with the text of ''Titus Andronicus''. A failure to deliver a new speech would get the Sim fired.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* In the WesternAnimation/ChillyWilly cartoon "WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfRockabyePoint", Chilly puts a clarinet on the sleeping guard dog's mouth, causing it to make noise as he snores and waking him up. The polar bear gets him back to sleep by pulling out the sheet music for "Rock-a-Bye, Baby" and playing it on the clarinet. Chilly then switches the sheet with one for circus music, waking the dog up again.

* [[TheBully Roger]] would often do this to WesternAnimation/{{Doug}} such as the time where it led Doug to report that Mr. Bone wore pink underwear. Doug never caught on [[http://dougfunniesjournal.tumblr.com/post/241021275/introducing-doug-funnie because he's crazy]].
* This is a favorite trick of {{ComicStrip/Garfield}} in [[WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends his animated TV series]]. He's done it with-- among other things-- the cue cards for an exercise show (page quote), a disc jockey's advertisement, and a list of pet tricks for a cat show.

* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'': In "I Scream, You Scream", Phineas and Ferb plans to build a machine that makes a giant sundae for Isabella, while Doofenshmirtz works on his Space-Laser-Inator to destroy a billboard in front of his building (among other things). At the end of the episode, it was revealed that the blueprints for Phineas and Ferb's sundae machine and Doofenshmirtz's Space-Laser-Inator were accidentally switched at the blueprint shop, with none of them having a clue that they're building each other's plans as they follow along with the blueprints they got.

** The third game of ''VideoGame/StrongBadsCoolGameForAttractivePeople'' requires Strong Bad to sabotage the Two-O Duo's dance routines this way by manipulating the records in their set list (including introducing new ones), combining this trope with ProgrammingGame. Coach Z, the target of your sabotage, is ''just'' smart enough to avoid dancing off the stage, but still not smart enough to stop himself from [[spoiler:air-punching his partner Bubs square in the face]] if that's what the music suggests.

* ''Fanfic/{{Checkmate}}'' (by Creator/AnlaShok): During the 64th Hunger Games, the Capitol Rebels hack into the teleprompter of Claudius Templesmith's predecessor as he recites the Hunger Games. Partially due to being high on drugs, it takes him a painfully long time to notice that he's revealing the overt acts of Rebellion that the Capitol has been trying to cover up, resulting in his [[UncertainDoom removal from the job]].

[[folder:Film]]

* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/ParaNorman''. The ghost of the witch haunting the town wakes up and wreaks havoc because when Norman did the ritual to keep her asleep, he took the book of fairy tales instead of the spellbook. [[spoiler:Then it's revealed that it ''was'' the right book. The witch was only eleven when she died, and her family kept her soul at peace by reading her stories at her grave. Norman messed up because he was at the wrong grave.]]

* This is a favorite trick of {{ComicStrip/Garfield}} in [[WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends his animated TV series]]. He's done it with the cue cards for an exercise show (page quote), a disc jockey's advertisement, and a list of pet tricks for a cat show.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E4BartSellsHisSoul Bart Sells His Soul]]", Bart replaces the hymn sheets and music at the local church with those of Music/IronButterfly's "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida", labeled as being titled "In the Garden of Eden" by "I. Ron Butterfly". When Reverend Lovejoy picks up on the swap (nearing the end of the entire ''17 minute-long'' song), he remarks that it "sounds like rock and/or roll."

* In one of the ''{{VideoGame/Reincarnation 2008}}'' games, you change the price of drinks on a bar blackboard so the bartender will serve drinks or not... note that the bartender appears to be the ''only one working the bar'', and yet fails to question the price magically (literally) changing.

* In one of the ''{{VideoGame/Reincarnation}}'' games, you change the price of drinks on a bar blackboard so the bartender will serve drinks or not... note that the bartender appears to be the ''only one working the bar'', and yet fails to question the price magically (literally) changing.

* ''Fanfic/{{Checkmate}}'': During the 64th Hunger Games, the Capitol Rebels hack into the teleprompter of Claudius Templesmith's predecessor as he recites the Hunger Games. Partially due to being high on drugs, it takes him a painfully long time to notice that he's revealing the overt acts of Rebellion that the Capitol has been trying to cover up, resulting in his [[UncertainDoom removal from the job]].

* In ''The International Smile'' by Creator/BrianWAldiss, a major diplomatic incident between the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union is kicked off when a tired British PM loses a page of his speech and obliviously announces that the Soviet president is a disagreeable sight that must be abolished.

* In the {{WesternAnimation/Daria}} episode ''Fair Enough'', Joey and Jamie are jealous when Jeffy is subbed into a play version of {{Literature/The Canterbury Tales}} to do a love scene with Quinn. Since he's a last minute replacement, Jamie will just have the book on stage and all he has to do is read out loud. Joey and Jamie tell him that he's playing The Pardoner (instead of Palamon), and he reads the wrong lines on stage in front of everyone, humiliating Quinn.

* In the {{WesternAnimation/Daria}} episode ''Fair Enough'', Joey and Jamie are jealous when Jeffy is subbed into a play version of [[Literature/The Canterbury Tales]] to do a love scene with Quinn. Since he's a last minute replacement, Jamie will just have the book on stage and all he has to do is read out loud. Joey and Jamie tell him that he's playing The Pardoner (instead of Palamon), and he reads the wrong lines on stage in front of everyone, humiliating Quinn.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode [[Recap/SouthParkS3E17WorldWideRecorderConcert World Wide Recorder Concert]], When the boys are able to confirm that the {{brown note}} works, they decide to prank some rival kids by altering a copy of the sheet music to include said note and taping it onto their hotel room door. The only problem is that they added a post-it note saying "Revised music for tomorrow", so when one of the organizers of the titular event comes along...
* In ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'', Buster switches the lyrics on a bossy kid's performer so that his song about a monkey who looks both ways to cross the street ends with the monkey being run over.

* [[TheBully Roger]] would often do this to WesternAnimation/{{Doug}} such as the time where it led Doug to report that Mr. Bone wore pink underwear. Doug never caught on [[http://dougfunniesjournal.tumblr.com/post/241021275/introducing-doug-funnie because he's crazy]].
* ''WesternAnimation/TheJetsons''
** A TV movie has the encrypted directions to a WMD switched with Judy Jetsons's lyrics submission to pop star Jet Screamer. Screamer likes the directions, mistaking them for song lyrics, and calls it "Gleep Glorp." "Gleep Glorp" subsequently becomes a hit song while the goons tasked with finding the WMD somehow manage to decrypt Judy's lyrics, which lead to a pair of fuzzy dice.
** In the cartoon, a similar plot happens when Judy enters a songwriting contest to win a date with Jet Screamer, with George intentionally replacing her entry with Elroy's secret code message in order to sabotage her. This turns out to be a SpringtimeForHitler as the coded message ("Eeep, Opp, Ork, Ahah") causes Judy to win.
* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'', the CIA holds a telethon to raise funding in order to keep their torture program. Roger, who came up with the idea, becomes enraged by [[GladIThoughtOfIt Stan]] who [[StealingTheCredit takes credit for it]] and vows to get revenge by sabotaging the telethon. One of the tricks he pulls is messing with the teleprompter so that instead of making the joke "CIA stands for Central ''Insanity'' Agency", Stan ends up saying "Stan Smith was born with both male and female genitalia".
* In the second ''WesternAnimation/GeraldMcBoingBoing'' cartoon "Gerald [=McBoing-Boing=]'s Symphony", Gerald is asked to stand in for an orchestra for the premiere of a new symphony. Unfortunately, some of the pages from his sound effects script get mixed in with the score, and so the music is often interrupted by sound effects. At first, Gerald is fired for his mistake, until messages come pouring in praising this new piece of "avant-guard" music.
* In the WesternAnimation/ChillyWilly cartoon "WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfRockabyePoint", Chilly puts a clarinet on the sleeping guard dog's mouth, causing it to make noise as he snores and waking him up. The polar bear gets him back to sleep by pulling out the sheet music for "Rock-a-Bye, Baby" and playing it on the clarinet. Chilly then switches the sheet with one for circus music, waking the dog up again.
* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/ParaNorman''. The ghost of the witch haunting the town wakes up and wreaks havoc because when Norman did the ritual to keep her asleep, he took the book of fairy tales instead of the spellbook. [[spoiler:Then it's revealed that it ''was'' the right book. The witch was only eleven when she died, and her family kept her soul at peace by reading her stories at her grave. Norman messed up because he was at the wrong grave.]]
* Done in the ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' episode "I Scream, You Scream". Phineas and Ferb plans to build a machine that makes a giant sundae for Isabella, while Doofenshmirtz works on his Space-Laser-Inator to destroy a billboard in front of his building (among other things). At the end of the episode, it was revealed that the blueprints for Phineas and Ferb's sundae machine and Doofenshmirtz's Space-Laser-Inator were accidentally switched at the blueprint shop, with none of them having a clue that they're building each other's plans as they follow along with the blueprints they got.

* Creator/VictorBorge [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWqFaGwNCMU has a sketch]] where an assistant is needed to turn the pages as Borge plays. Except the assistant can't read music, so he turns the pages at random, leading to Litsz's Liebenstraum turning into Turkey in the Straw.

* In ''The International Smile'' by Creator/BrianWAldiss, a major diplomatic incident betweeen the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union is kicked off when a tired British PM loses a page of his speech and obliviously announces that the Soviet president is a disagreeable sight that must be abolished.