History Main / UnfortunateItemSwap

* In ''MyUncleOswald'', Yasmin Howcomely tries to seduce the King of Norway by giving him a chocolate truffle filled with a powerful aphrodisiac. However, she accidentally gives him a perfectly normal truffle and eats the "spiked" truffle herself. Note, however, that at this point in the book, she has pulled the exact same trick ''succesfully'' with a lot of rich and famous men.

* A two-part episode of the 2010 ''TheDefenders'' played this for drama. A woman dies (temporarily) and a high school football player is left brain damaged due to two bottles of epinephrine being labeled too similarly. (They were of different potency.) They ended up suing the pharmaceutical company that produces the epinephrine and show the danger by [[spoiler:having Kaczmarek intentionally trigger his shrimp allergy.]]

* The origin of Bouncing Boy from the ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' - he mistook a bottle of experimental SuperSerum (which he was supposed to be delivering when he got distracted) for the bottle of soda pop he'd just bought.

* Happens frequently in ''DonaldDuck'' [[DisneyDucksComicUniverse stories]]; usually involves a gift meant for Daisy.

* In ''Nine To Five'', Lily Thomlin's character accidentally buys rat poison instead of non-dairy coffee creamer (they're packaged ridiculously similarly), and thinks she has poisoned her boss.

* The whole premise of ''8 Heads In A Duffel Bag''.

* In the "Get me Hennimore" sketch from ''Series/ThatMitchellandWebbLook'', Hennimore is a slightly clumsy secretary who is given two extremely similar orders by his boss (e.g. To put a Krufts dog show in room 1 and dog-eating Koreans in room I) which ends up with disasterous, sometimes dangerous consequenses.

[[AC:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]] * In one episode of ''Manga/MaisonIkkoku'', Godai records two spoken messages on tape - one for his LoveInterest Kyoko, one for a toddler who said she wanted to marry him. Naturally, Kyoko gets the tape where Godai explains that he can't marry her because she's far too young, and the child gets the tape where he declares his love and says he will do his best to become worthy of her hand. (For added hilarity, the toddler's name [[OneSteveLimit is also Kyoko]]).

[[AC:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]
* In one episode of ''Manga/MaisonIkkoku'', Godai records two spoken messages on tape - one for his LoveInterest Kyoko, one for a toddler who said she wanted to marry him. Naturally, Kyoko gets the tape where Godai explains that he can't marry her because she's far too young, and the child gets the tape where he declares his love and says he will do his best to become worthy of her hand. (For added hilarity, the toddler's name [[OneSteveLimit is also Kyoko]]).

* In ''Film/JohnnyEnglish'', Johnny intends to [[EngineeredPublicConfession play a DVD]] on which the villain explains his EvilPlan in detail to a crowd of royalty, politicians, and other [=VIPs=]. But this trope happens, and a surveillance clip of Johnny dancing half-naked in front of his bathroom mirror comes up instead.

* In an episode of the reality series ''Series/Pyros'', the speaker wiring at a fireworks show gets mixed up, and ended up playing the raw time codes used to synchronize the show (both tracks were on different audio channels of the same CD) instead of music, reducing its soundtrack to beeping noises. When the operators realized this and quickly fixed up the speakers, the person operating the music insisted on restarting the CD entirely instead of just letting it go, leading to DeadAir in the sky until it got to the part of the show that it was stopped at.

* ''Series/{{Friends}}'': A porn video is swapped with a video of Phoebe's friend giving birth (intended to prepare Rachel for giving birth to Emma). Chandler and Monica's romantic evening is thus ruined.

* In ''{{Snuff}}'', this is lampshaded without being used. Sam Vimes has two similar boxes -- one snuffbox and one container of goblin snot. He muses on the possibility of mixing them up, but it doesn't happen.

* In the TexAvery cartoon ''Crazy Mixed Up Pup'', a man and his dog are out for a walk and get hit by a car. The paramedics come, but one mixes up "human plasma" and "dog plasma," so that the man gets the dog plasma and vice versa. [[SuperhumanTransfusion The man starts acting like a dog, and the dog like a man]].

* In the DonaldDuck cartoon "Chef Donald", Don accidentally puts rubber cement in a waffle mix instead of baking soda. The resulting mixture is too rubbery to stir, no matter how much Donald tries.

* In ''My Favorite Brunette'', the BobHope character manages to get a record made of the EvilPlan, but the PeterLorre character switches it for a music record.

* On ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', a pornographic video gets switched with a ''Film/LordOfTheRings'' tape. When Butters accidentally watches the porn video, his confusion translates into acting like Gollum.

* In one episode of ''MaisonIkkoku'', Godai records two spoken messages on tape - one for his LoveInterest Kyoko, one for a toddler who said she wanted to marry him. Naturally, Kyoko gets the tape where Godai explains that he can't marry her because she's far too young, and the child gets the tape where he declares his love and says he will do his best to become worthy of her hand. (For added hilarity, the toddler's name [[OneSteveLimit is also Kyoko]]).

* In ''TheEmperorsNewGroove'', Kronk mistakes the bottle of extract of llama for the bottle of poison due to faulty labeling.
* In ''JohnnyEnglish'', Johnny intends to [[EngineeredPublicConfession play a DVD]] on which the villain explains his EvilPlan in detail to a crowd of royalty, politicians, and other [=VIPs=]. But this trope happens, and a surveillance clip of Johnny dancing half-naked in front of his bathroom mirror comes up instead.

* In the fourth season of ''{{Blackadder}}'', Captain Blackadder, who is about to be court-martialled for shooting General Melchett's pet pigeon, writes two letters: one asking his klutzy lieutenant George for a sponge bag, another asking the brilliant lawyer Hugh Massingbird for legal aid. Of course, his idiotic aide Baldrick gets the letters mixed up.
* In one episode of ''{{Cheers}}'', Sam burns an envelope which he believes to contain his sperm count test results - but he's got it switched with [[spoiler: Frasier's will]].
* In the ''DoctorWho'' episode "The Lodger", the Doctor, in a hurry, accidentally grabs an electric toothbrush instead of his sonic screwdriver.
* ''{{Friends}}'': A porn video is swapped with a video of Phoebe's friend giving birth (intended to prepare Rachel for giving birth to Emma). Chandler and Monica's romantic evening is thus ruined.
* In the "Police Raid" sketch from ''MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'', Graham Chapman plays the role of a policeman who intrudes on two guys having lunch, claiming he's got a warrant to search the premises. After a brief awkward silence, Graham produces a paper bag from his pocket, drops it on the table, and begins loudly declaring that he has discovered a bag which may indeed contain illicit substances. Eric Idle searches the bag to find... a sandwich. Dismayed, Graham looks at the camera and inquires, "Blimey! Whatever did I give the wife?"
* ''MyNameIsEarl'': Chubby has two guns, a real gun and an identical-looking water pistol he keeps filled with vodka. He accidentally kills himself (offscreen, between episodes) when he [[AteHisGun tries to squirt some vodka into his mouth with the wrong gun]].

* In ''TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutron'', Jimmy keeps all the crew's superpowers from a past episode in ridiculously similar sprays. He also puts a love potion in the same type of tube. Oh, and they come across a situation where they actually need them. Fast.

* On ''SouthPark'', a pornographic video gets switched with a ''Film/LordOfTheRings'' tape. When Butters accidentally watches the porn video, his confusion translates into acting like Gollum.

* In the fourth season of ''{{Blackadder}}'', Captain Blackadder, who is about to be court-martialled for shooting General Melchett's pet pigeon, writes two letters: one asking his klutzy sidekick George for a sponge bag, another asking his brilliant lawyer cousin for legal aid. Of course, his idiotic aide Baldrick gets the letters mixed up.

* ''The Return of ThePinkPanther'': Chief Inspector Dreyfus has both a real gun and a lighter that looks identical to the gun. After getting angry at Clouseau he tries to shoot him with the gun but it turns out to be the lighter. Later he tries to light a cigarette and ends up shooting himself with the gun.

* In ''JohnnyEnglish'', Johnny intends to [[EngineeredPublicConfession play a DVD]] on which the villain explains his EvilPlan in detail to a crowd of royalty, politicians, and other [=VIPs=]. But this trope happens, and a clip of Johnny dancing half-naked comes up instead.

* Happens frequently in ''DonaldDuck'' stories; usually involves a gift meant for Daisy.