Mistaken Confession

Detective Krevoy: [trying to control himself] This wasn't your first time, was it, Ted? How many we talking?
Ted: Hitchhikers? I don't know — twenty-five... fifty maybe — who keeps track? Hey, I know this is the Bible Belt, but where I come from this is not that big a deal.

— There's Something About Mary (Detective Krevoy is talking about murder. Ted is talking about giving hitchhikers a ride.)

Someone confesses to something that wasn't actually what the interrogators were asking about. Often happens after a bit of Perp Sweating.

Often the conversation will play out so that none of the dialogue between the cops and the Mistaken for Murderer lets slip that he is really talking about the cookie he stole from his mother's house (which has been plaguing him ever since).

Compare Saying Too Much (where the confession could have been avoided by just stopping talking), You Just Told Me (where the interrogator was deliberately fishing for an extra confession), Suspiciously Specific Denial (where the attempt to deny guilt is what gives them away), Thought They Knew Already (which is frequently the reason for the confession), and One Dialogue, Two Conversations (if neither party realises that they're talking about different crimes). Subtrope of Poor Communication Kills.

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Examples:

Comic Books

• In the Tintin book Flight 714, the millionaire Laszlo Carreidas is kidnapped and injected with a truth serum in an attempt to force him to reveal the details of his Swiss Bank Account. But instead of revealing the relevant details, Carreidas engages in boastful rants about his underhanded exploits, much to the annoyance of his captors. Hilarity ensues when Rastapopoulos, the mastermind behind Carreidas' capture, is accidentally injected with the serum in a struggle.
• In the Teen Titans Go! comic based off the new show, Robin interrogates everyone regarding Cyborg's missing sandwich.
  Beast Boy: Okay, okay! I confess! I ran with scissors! I crossed without looking both ways! I left the seat up!
  Robin: What about the sandwich?
  Beast Boy: Oh, that? No way, dude. I didn't take the sandwich.

Films — Animated

• In Hoodwinked!, the Wolf and Twitchy are convinced from a conversation with an informant that Granny Puckett is the thief who's been stealing recipe books in the area, and her granddaughter Red Puckett might have information. They use a high-powered radar dish to listen in on Red as she rides a cable car up into the mountains. While they listen, Boingo asks Red if she delivers goodies up this area, and Red replies, "Well, not usually. But I was thinking about what you told me earlier? About the Muffin Man? I need to protect Granny's recipes from that bandit's evil plan. They're gonna shut down everyone in the forest if we're not careful." Unfortunately, the Wolf's equipment fails to pick up every word, so he only hears "....But I was thinking of....the Muffin Man....Granny's recipes....an evil plan....to shut down everyone in the forest," which seems to confirm his prior suspicions.
• The Little Mermaid (1989): Triton asks Sebastian about Ariel being in love. Sebastian thinks the king knows that she is in love with a human, and blurts it out.
  Triton: Let's see, now... Oh, who could the lucky merman be? [notices Sebastian just outside the door] Come in, Sebastian.
  Sebastian: [inhales deeply] I mustn't overreact. I must remain calm. [skitters to Triton; squeaky voice] Yes? [clears throat] Uh, yes, Your Majesty?
  Triton: Sebastian, I'm concerned about Ariel. Have you noticed she's been acting peculiar lately?
  Sebastian: Peculiar?
  Triton: You know, moaning about, daydreaming, singing to herself... You haven't noticed, hmm?
  Sebastian: W-well, I-I-I...
  Triton: Sebastian... I know you've been keeping something from me...
  Sebastian: [big gulp] Keeping... something?
  Triton: About Ariel?
  Sebastian: [trembling] Ariel?
  Triton: In love?
  Sebastian: I TRIED TO STOP HER, SIR! SHE WOULDN'T LISTEN! I told her to stay away from humans! They are bad! They are trouble! They are...
  Triton: Humans? WHAT ABOUT HUMANS?!
  Sebastian: Humans? [chuckles nervously] Who said anything about humans?

Films — Live-Action

• Beau Geste: The brothers each jokingly claim to have the missing sapphire and make up stories about what they'll do with the money, while ducking around the issue who really does have it. Unfortunately, another legionnaire is eavesdropping on them and takes them seriously.
• Played for laughs in The Goonies. When the Fratellis catch Chunk and order him to tell everything under threat of shredding his arm in a blender, he proceeds to tell them every bad thing he's done in his life.
  Jake Fratelli: I'm beginning to like this kid, Ma!
• Famously played for laughs in There's Something About Mary where Ted confesses to picking up a hitchhiker when he's actually under arrest for murder.
• A Thousand Words: Jack's stony silence the first day he learns that talking brings him closer to death causes his assistant Aaron to become unnerved by his silence and babble on, thinking Jack is mad first about him missing work recently, then about kissing Jack's wife under the mistletoe at a Christmas party, then about having sex with the secretary in Jack's office while their wearing animal costumes all of which Jack gives incredulous expressions at.
• In My Cousin Vinny, the protagonists are arrested after realizing they accidentally took a can of tuna from a store without paying for it. In reality, the shopkeeper had been murdered shortly after they left, and witnesses reported seeing a car like theirs leaving the store. So, they confess to what think is just a shoplifting charge, and are shocked when they realize it's a murder charge. Part of the problem is that when one of the defendants realizes the charge against him, he incredulously repeats "I shot the clerk?" several times in an attempt to clarify, but the Police interpret it as a statement: "I shot the clerk" .
• In L.A. Confidential, where suspects for a mass homicide in a diner actually confess to the equally heinous crime of kidnapping and gang rape.
• Appeared in a black-and-white Sherlock Holmes film when Watson accused a man of murder only to find he'd stolen a teapot.
• In Presumed Innocent, as DA Sabich is point-blank accused of killing his colleague/ex-lover by another colleague, he angrily snaps at him, "Yeah, you're right. You're always right!" Following his arrest, his colleague declares his intent to testify at the trial, claiming that Sabich admitted to the crime. Fortunately the judge realizes that Sabich was no doubt being facetious and blasts the other lawyer for either deliberately failing to realize this or genuinely foolishly taking him seriously.

Literature

• In The Brothers Karamazov, during an interrogation, Dmitri is quick to confess to murder and answer all the detectives' questions, believing that he's killed his family's servant. It turns out the servant survived, and he's being accused of murdering his father. Happens all throughout the interrogation as well, when Dmitri says one thing and the cops interpret it against him.
• Invoked by Tyrion Lannister when he is accused of attempting to murder a seven-year-old boy, Bran Stark, and murdering Lord Jon Arryn by his insane widow, Lysa Arryn. He loudly gives a public confession of his numerous "crimes," including lying on numerous occasions, whoring, insulting the queen (his sister) and her father, and so on. This was a ploy to call Lysa out in public about her behavior towards him and demanding a trial, which she was honor-bound to give.
• In the The Family Trade by Charles Stross, Olga confronts Miriam with a pistol to get revenge for Miriam having wronged her. Miriam gives Olga a heartfelt apology for sleeping with her fiancé. This confuses Olga, who is trying to take revenge on Miriam because she suspects Miriam of hiring the thug who broke into her room and tried to rape her.
• Full Disclosure: President Ericsson and his administration mistake a newspaper columnists inquiries about whether they lied about the Soviet Premier making a Heroic Sacrifice to save the presidents life (which was done to ward off anger towards the Soviet Union after the assassination attempt) with the reporter making inquiries about Ericson’s previous blindness (which he didn’t disclose to the voters). They have a press conference admitting how Ericson misled the voters about his health and apologizing. The next day the reporter proceeds to expose the truth about the Premier's death, hitting them with two scandals.
• Done to death and continually for laughs in the stories involving William George (Billy) Bunter, by Frank Richards (one of around two dozen pseudonyms used by Charles Hamilton). Whenever Bunter is summoned or called by name by an authority figure, Bunter almost always responds with "It wasn't me, sir" followed by a denial of some misdeed which Bunter names and which therefore amounts to a confession. Yes, Bunter is an idiot. That's the point.
• In Kevin J. Anderson's Blindfold, capital crimes on the remote human colony Atlas are brought before a caste of genetically-engineered telepaths called Truthsayers who use a drug called Veritas to allow them to perceive another brain's electrical impulses (i.e. thoughts). They are able to determine guilt or innocence based on the accused's own thoughts and memories. Their decision is final and cannot be appealed. The entire Atlas society holds on the idea that the Truthsayers are never wrong. Along comes Troy Borren, a young Space Elevator worker who is late filing a report, so he breaks into the building after hours in order to claim that he filed the report on-time. Unfortunately, he stumbles on the body of his boss, recently killed on the Big Bad's orders. Troy is arrested and brought before a young Truthsayer named Kalliana, who has recently been traumatized by the mind of an insane mass murderer. She interprets Troy's intense feelings of guilt over the break-in as admission of guilt about the murder of his boss. By the time she realizes she was wrong, it's too late.
• Holmes on the Range: In The Crack in the Lens it turns out that the reason that Milford Bales hates Old Red is because he mistook Old Red's drunken It's All My Fault speech after Gertie was murdered as him confessing that he'd killed her.
• In the Dilly The Dinosaur story "Dilly and the Missing Swamp Chocs", Dilly steals a box of swamp chocs (a type of candy that dinosaurs like), and Dorla (his big sister) tries to scare Dilly by telling him about prison. When the parents' friend, a police officer named Donald, comes to visit, Dilly confesses, even though nobody but Dorla knew (and even then, she was only guessing) that he'd stolen them.
  Dilly: "I did it, I stole the swamp-chocs! I couldn't help it, they were in the hall when I came in, I hid them under my bed, I'm sorry, I'll never steal again, please, and don't let him take me to prison like Dorla said."
• Brother Cadfael: The Virgin In The Ice has the body of a young nun found frozen in ice (and shows signs of having been raped). A monk's delirious confession implies that he raped her because she reminded him of his deceased wife (the wife's death being the reason he joined the abbey) and then killed her, but it turns out he certainly felt the temptation and went outside to avoid it, meaning she was defenseless when the actual culprit raped and accidentally murdered her. The monk feels responsible for her death anyway, as he thinks that if he'd been strong enough to resist temptation he could have done something.
• In the Nursery Crime novel The Fourth Bear, Briggs tells Mary that he is disappointed in her conduct and must suspend her. Mary assumes that he has learned that she has involved Jack, who is already suspended in the investigation and tries to explain. Briggs Pretends He Didn't Hear That and informs her that she is being suspended for indecent exposure due to her behaviour on her recent date with Ashley.
• Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: In Dawn of the Dreadfuls, Mr. Bennett accuses Captain Cannon of deceiving him, and the officer makes a long speech about how he loves Mrs. Bennett and has been trying to woo her. A stunned Mr. Bennett makes several Let Me Get This Straight... comments and clarifies that he was talking about how Cannon had been deceiving him about how long the zombie infestation has been going on and whether they can expect reinforcements.
• Serge Storms:: In Torpedo Juice, when two cops accost Anti-Hero vigilante/Serial Killer Serge, he wearily says that he bets they've come to talk about "all those murders" and, after a brief chat with them, confirms the death penalty looks likely. Then, it turns out that they aren't talking about, Serge's murders, but a crime spree committed by Serge's new wife Molly (they approached him to check his car for booby traps). Unlike most examples of the trope, Serge manages to keep the cops from realizing that they were talking about two different sets of murders and avoids arrest.
• In the Mahalia Watkins Soul Food Mystery Murder with Fried Chicken and Waffles by A.L. Herbert, Jacqueline Rand confesses with such guilt to taking and eating the leftover fried chicken against her very strict diet that Mahalia initially mistakes her for confessing to the murder of her own brother Marcus.

Live-Action TV

• On 227, Lester shows up at his wife Mary's hotel room in order to surprise her. He's shocked to find men's clothing in her closet (which she bought for him). When she returns to the room, he holds up one of the shirts, asking her, "How could you do this to me?", assuming she's having an affair. Thinking he's complaining about the clothes and not understanding why he's upset, she blithely declares, "Honey, I do it all the time! Whenever I shop, whenever I travel! I thought you liked it!"
• 3rd Rock from the Sun had an episode where Dick confessed to being gay, but thought he was confessing to being an alien. Hilarity Ensued.
• The Black Donnellys: In the framing scenes of the first episode, Joey is asked by the cops where "the bodies" are and goes off an a story describing the circumstances behind Tommy killing Huey and Sal only to have a minor Oh, Crap! moment be told that those weren't the bodies they were talking about.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • In episode "Phases," Xander thought Larry was confessing to being a werewolf, when in fact he was just coming out of the closet.
  • Happened the normal way in the same conversation. Xander had previously been possessed by a hyena spirit, so knew a little what it would be like to be a werewolf. His little speech on the subject made Larry think that Xander was coming out the closet, and that encouraged Larry to.
  • Willow literally sweats a confession out of Jonathan, using a desk lamp, but it turns out instead of conjuring up a Monster of the Week to kill the swim team bullies, he just pissed in their pool.
  • Jonathan appears to confess to being the one planning a massacre at the school, but actually intended to commit suicide.
• Castle:
  • One episode, they catch up to a murder suspect, and the first thing she says is: "I did it. I did it, I did it." (She was admitting merely to taking a bribe to put the victim on that particular jury.)
  • In a different episode, one suspect (Also the killer) confesses to Beckett's face that he's "dying to cop a feel under her cop blouse."
• Doctor Who: In "The Unicorn and the Wasp", Colonel Curbishley confesses to having been faking his need for a wheelchair for nearly ten years when the pointing finger of accusations seems to be on him. Agatha Christie then goes on to say "Actually, I was going to say you were completely innocent..."
• Frasier loves this. The most memorable example is probably when Frasier is serving as a Secret-Keeper for an aspiring politician who believes he was abducted by aliens. When he hears that a scandal about the man involving aliens is being mounted he tries to defend him (in a regrettably public fashion) while not realizing that the aliens in question were really undocumented immigrants that the political was associating with.
• On one of the very few episodes of the short-lived sitcom Go Fish, a high school teacher thinks his student is on drugs, while the student is under the impression that the teacher thinks he's gay. In a hilarious instance of a confession being mistaken by both parties, the entire affair is resolved when the student explains, "I'm straight."
• F Troop: In "Survival of the Fittest," O'Rourke tells Dobbs and Duffy that he knows what they're up to, and they nervously try to justify selling some horseshoes and taking a second job without permission, only for him to say he's telling them that he knows they've been planning to smuggle food to the Captain and Aagarn during their precarious survival training. When Dobbs and Duffy say they have no such plans, a frustrated O'Rourke makes it clear he's actually ordering them to help their friends if they want him to forget their mistaken confession.
• In Inside Man, 15 year-old Ben confesses to owning a USB stick full of porn when his maths tutor discovers it, thinking he's covering for his vicar father who in fact ended up with it through a similar innocent mistake. He doesn't realize it's child pornography.
• The Leverage episode "The Three Days of the Hunter Job" was this trope weaponized when the team convinces Immoral Journalist Monica Hunter that she's uncovered a secret government project called "Destiny" that involves the contamination of the worlds water supply. Naturally, Hunter wants confirmation before committing to such a story, so they steer Hunter towards a congressman she knows. Said congressman is having an affair with a stripper named Destiny (something the team knows but Hunter doesn't) and when Hunter tells him she wants to know about Destiny the man panics, asks how she found out, then protests that she can't go on tv about that and then runs away in terror, making Hunter think that he just confirmed the government conspiracy.
  • In Leverage: Redemption, "The Belly of the Beast Job", two cops show up right as Hogan and Carol are arguing about how much evidence there is linking them to sexual assault and embezzlement. Hogan and Carol quickly start accusing each other. The cops reveal they just came to respond to a fire alarm, but end up arresting the two criminals largely because of that accidental confession.
• In an episode of The Lucy Show, Lucy was arrested in a case of Mistaken Identity over several jewel robberies. She accidentally confessed to a few of them at the police station. She thought she had been arrested for littering.
• On one episode of Malcolm in the Middle, Hal tries to run a father-son race with Dewey, despite being temporarily blinded. He goes off track and eventually tears through what he thinks is the finish line tape, but is actually tape around a crime scene. He immediately starts jumping up and down and gleefully shouting "I did it!"
• In an episode of NCIS, all signs point to the doctor being the one who killed the nurse and let the patient (who Abby had befriended) die. The doctor confesses, but believes they're interrogating him about him embezzling, not murder. As it turns out, the patient was never under the doctor's care, never died, and was the one who killed the nurse.
• In The Office (US) accountant webisodes, the accountants asked Phillis if she had spent any company money on something, hoping to find the missing $3000, she admits to having bought something with a company card, but it was a heel for her shoe, only costing $14.
• On Suits, five years before the series started, Jessica gives Louis a chance to come clean and he confesses that he likes to sleep on her couch, drinks Harvey's liquor, steals another associate's candy bars and likes to walk barefoot in the library. She was actually talking about him stealing half a million dollars from the firm and his outburst makes her realize that he has been framed.
• In the Warehouse 13 episode "Age Before Beauty", Pete and Myka are investigating the murders by artifact of several supermodels and notice that Jenny the PA is acting suspiciously. They confront her, and she tells them that the models deserve to pay. They tell her that this is a poor justification for murder. Shocked, she explains that she thought they were busting her for dealing drugs. Later in the episode, one of the designers confesses to giving Myka "a killer dress": he gave her a metaphorically killer dress as a snub to one of the other models. For those unfamiliar with the show's premise, Pete and Myka are tracking down objects with mysterious properties, so a dress that kills anyone who puts it on would've been par for the course.
• In The Wire, the Major Crimes Unit catches Proposition Joe's nephew Cheese on a wire talking about killing his "dawg". The MCU are stunned that he's so freely discussing killing a friend. Bunk and McNulty interrogate Cheese, show him photos of some fresh homicide victims and ask him which one is 'Dawg'. Cheese eventually tells them where 'Dawg' can be found, that is, unless the SPCA has gotten there first.
  Cedric Daniels: Tell me something good.
  Bunk Moreland: We're charging him.
  Jimmy McNulty: Improper disposal of an animal. Discharging a firearm in city limits.

Theatre

• In the play The Miser by french author Molière, the eponymous miser, Harpagon, accuses his servant Valere of stealing his stash of money. Valere thinks he is talking about his daughter promising to marry Valere. This misunderstanding goes on as Valere talks about the beautiful eyes of Harpagon's 'treasure'...

Video Games

• Catherine: Near the end of the game, Thomas Mutton confesses his involvement in the mysterious, deadly dreams Vincent and other men have been having when Vincent just wanted to confirm that Mutton saw Catherine too and she wasn't just a figment of Vincent's imagination.
• In the first level of The Simpsons Hit & Run, Homer accuses Mr Burns of being behind the mysterious black vans all over town. Not only does Burns have nothing to do with it, but they're only pizza vans.
  Homer: C. Montgomery Burns, I know you're guilty! J'accuse!...Sir.
  Burns: Fine, I admit it, I had Amelia Earhart's plane shot down. That hussie was getting too big for her jodhpurs.

Visual Novels

• An optional one occurs in the first Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. At the end of the first trial day, once it becomes very clear that April May knows a lot more about the crime than she should, you have the option to accuse her of the murder. If you do this, she ends up confessing to wiretapping the victim's apartment.
  April: All I did was a little wiretapping... oops.

Web Animation

• Ultra Fast Pony: In the episode "Purple Party Pooper", Twilight gets an ominously-worded summons from Princess Celestia, and then angrily declares that if she's going down, she'll take her friends down with her. Her friends realize just how much dirt Twilight has on all of them, so they rush to Celestia to collectively defend Twilight, defend themselves, beg for mercy, and bribe Celestia. Only after indirectly incriminating themselves do they realize that Celestia was simply looking for someone to celebrate her birthday with.
• One of the Monster High web shorts centered around Mr. Rotter putting various ghouls in detention for a crime he doesn't specify until the end^note Stealing his glasses...except they're on his head. Each of the students confesses to something bad they did that doesn't relate to this crime – Cleo used a magical idol to cut the lunch line (and got her food cursed as a result), Frankie accidentally blasted several students with electricity, Lagoona decided to Free the Frogs, Clawdeen claims that her brother ate her homework, Heath confesses to setting several things (including the swimming pool) on fire, and Draculaura just relays the latest gossip.

Web Comics

• In this Dewey Defeats Tarzan strip, one character incorrectly thinks he is being confronted and starts to confess to something (probably) pretty terrible.

Web Original

• In the first season finale of Gemma and the Bear Bear tied Tom up and locked him in a closet. Luckily, Tom was in love with Gemma and promised not to tell the police or the FBI. Several minutes later, two FBI agents show up in Gemma's office and she blurts out that she had nothing to do with the kidnapping! They had no idea what she was talking about, although they did want to ask her about Bear. . .

Western Animation

• Doug:
  • Doug once accidentally turns in a doodle he made of Mrs. Wingo along with his homework assignment, and is panicking as she begins grading each of the papers. Doug decides to try and act casual and maybe she will never find out he made the drawing. But as soon as she asks who turned in something, before she can finish the sentence, Doug confesses, only to find out she is asking who had turned in a paper titled "My First Pair of High Heels" (which is Bebe's paper, who forgot to write her name).
  • Also happens when Doug tries to tell his friends he's not copying a teen star.
    Doug: I suppose you're wondering why you're here? Certain accusations have been made recently.
    Roger: Alright, I did it! Big deal!
    Doug: Did what, Roger?
    Roger: Oh, you don't know? Never mind.
    Bebe: Get to the point, Doug!
• Fillmore!: In multiple episodes, Fillmore and Ingrid chase a nervous suspect and exchange heated words with them about the crime that provoked the pursuit without realizing that the person is running for a different reason.
  • In "Test of the Tested", the search for stolen test answers leads to two chases where different suspects (one of whom even rants about how unfair the test is) are carrying boxes they won’t turn over. One box has stolen tartar sauce from the cafeteria and the other has cheat sheets for the test.
  • In "Cry the Beloved Mascot", the lobster mascot is missing and one suspect has a book about ways to feed kidnapped animals. They chase him down and demand to be taken to the stolen mascot. He complies, only for them to learn that he actually kidnapped a rival school’s goat mascot. When he realizes they had no clue about that, he is initially confused about what they were after him for. Then he puts the pieces together and screams out that their beloved mascot has been stolen, alerting the whole school when the heroes were trying to keep that a secret.
• The character Wade did this regularly in the U.S. Acres segment of Garfield and Friends. In one episode the farm's cow had been stolen. Wade was questioned, and within minutes, he confessed to, among other things: wearing wax lips out of season, putting lettuce and tomato on a corn beef sandwich, eating all of a piece of bread but the crust, and phoning information for numbers he could have looked up himself. However, he didn't even mention the missing cow.
• Johnny Bravo: In "The Hansel and Gretel Witch Project", Suzy and Carl show up to Johnny's house to ask him to help them with a documentary they're making. Johnny sees Carl recording him and believes that the cops are on his tail.
  Johnny: It not my fault! The neighbor's dog told me to steal cable!
• In the Mickey Mouse (2013) short "Sock Burglar", Minnie interrogates Goofy as a suspect, believing him to be a serial sock thief. He confesses to drinking all the milk from Mickey's carton and backwashing it.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • "Party of One": Pinkie decides to interrogate Spike to find out why her friends are avoiding her, assuming he knows all about it, but he has no clue what she's after...
    Pinkie Pie: NO! You're not understanding me! I want you to confess!
    Spike: I'm the one who spilled juice all over Twilight's copy of Magical Mysteries and Practical Potions! [wince]
    Pinkie Pie: And?
    Spike: And I'm the one who used up all the hot water in Ponyville yesterday when I took a seven-hour bubblebath! [harder wince]
    Pinkie Pie: AND?
    Spike: ...And sometimes, when no one's around, I do this... [flexes arms in front of mirror] Lookin' good, Spike! Lookin' REAL good!
    Pinkie Pie: [eye take]
  • Yet another example occurs in this show in which Zecora is trying to get Apple Bloom to confess to using some of her potion ingredients thereby coming down with an amusing disease. A confession is the only thing that will make the antidote (a flower) grow. Pinkie Pie was within earshot and inadvertently came to believe that she was the one who needed to confess to something. "I ate five corn cakes....SIX! I ate six corn cakes."
• The Simpsons:
  • In "Bart's Girlfriend", Lisa tries to get Jessica Lovejoy to confess to stealing the church's collection money, so she stands in front of the congregation and asks that the criminal confess now. As she didn't specify which crime she was referring to, everyone in town starts owning up to random things. And when Jessica plays dumb through the entire thing, Lisa just says "Oh what the heck...IT WAS JESSICA LOVEJOY!"
    Skinner: Agh! I smelled some marijuana smoke in Vietnam!
    Grampa: I was the one that cancelled Star Trek!
    Dr. Hibbert: I left my Porsche keys inside Mrs. Glick!
  • There's also "Bart Of Darkness", where Bart believes Flanders killed his wife, Maude, after overhearing him saying "I've killed her... I'm a mur-diddly-urdler!" It later turns out that Flanders had merely just overwatered Maude's favorite ficus plant.
  • In "They Saved Lisa's Brain", Springfield's members of MENSA meet with Mayor Quimby to reform gazebo reservation laws.
    Skinner: The jig is up, Quimby.
    Quimby: Oh, God!
    Hibbert: (holding a book) When you see what's in this report, things are going to change in this town...
    Quimby: I earned that lotto money, I swear!
    (frantically presses a button, summoning the bodyguards to put folders through a shredder and put that shredder through another shredder, while he exits the room.)
• SpongeBob SquarePants: In "The Pink Perloiner", SpongeBob gives Patrick a teddy bear with a microphone taped to it called Confess-a-Bear, which he speaks through to get Patrick to admit he took his jellyfishing net. Patrick instead confesses an even nastier secret — he accidentally knocked SpongeBob's toothbrush in the toilet and put it back without washing it first, and SpongeBob runs around in the background, disgusted and tryinf to rid his tongue of bacteria.
  Patrick: You're mad at me, aren't you, Confess-a-Bear?

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