History Main / MistakenForToilet

A SubTrope of ToiletHumor and NotWhereTheyThought. May be the result of a PottyEmergency. May also be the result of ActingOutADaydream if they're having a dream (or something similar) in which they're in a bathroom, as per the joke/word of advice: "If you see a toilet in your dream, don't use it." May also be performed if the character in question is TheDitz or a [[ChildrenAreInnocent naive child]]. Related to PuttingThePeeInPool. See also WrongBathroomIncident, PoopingWhereYouShouldnt, and JarPotty.

** A RunningGag has people mistaking Stewie's time machine for a porta-potty due to its similar shape. This becomes a plot point in "Road to Germany" when Mort ends up using Stewie's time machine by mistake and gets sent back to World War II. This is undone when Stewie and Brian go back to before he used the time machine and [[BathroomControl forbid him from going inside]].

* "Series/ABitOfFryAndLaurie": One Vox Pop features a women play for Creator/StephenFry sticking her head out from behind the curtain of a photobooth and exclaiming "Excuse me, can't seem to find the flush."

* "Series/TheGoldenGirls": In one episode Sophia has broken her glasses and has problems seeing things, she is about to go on the stool in the kitchen but Rose yells at her to stop when she asks why Rose is in the Bathroom. Dorothy tells her it's the Kitchen and she realises her mistake and that she tried to poach an egg in the toilet.

* On a business trip to Texas, a man is drinking in a hotel bar. He orders a Manhattan, and it arrives garnished with a cherry the size of an apple. When he asks the bartender about this, he's told, "EverythingIsBiggerInTexas." He orders a series of other drinks, each with its own improbably huge garnish, and every time is told: "Everything is bigger in Texas." Finally he gets up to go to the men's room, but takes a wrong turn and ends up falling into the hotel pool. Frantically he cries out: "Don't flush!"

* On a business trip to Texas, a man is drinking in a hotel bar. He orders a Manhattan, and it arrives garnished with a cherry the size of an apple. When he asks the bartender about this, he's told, "Everything is bigger in Texas." He orders a series of other drinks, each with its own improbably huge garnish, and every time is told: "Everything is bigger in Texas." Finally he gets up to go to the men's room, but takes a wrong turn and ends up falling into the hotel pool. Frantically he cries out: "Don't flush!"

* ZigZagged with MediaNotes/{{Dada}} artist Marcel Duchamp's famous piece "Fountain," in which he put a signature on a porcelain urinal and entered it in an art exhibition. The piece sparked a lively discussion on the nature of art, as the simple act transformed an ordinary toilet into a valuable art object. Perhaps predictably, in the later 20th century, some [[https://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/pissing-in-duchamps-fountain/ other performance artists]] attempted to urinate in replicas of "Fountain" (Music/BrianEno even claims to have succeeded at it), mostly being prevented by museum security on the reasonable grounds that one should not pee in art objects. But this sets up a LogicBomb question: can we count it as misusing art as a toilet when it's a case of using a toilet as art?

* ZigZagged with MediaNotes/{{Dada}} artist Marcel Duchamp's famous piece "Fountain," in which he put a signature on a porcelain urinal and entered it in an art exhibition. This sparked a lively discussion on the nature of art, as the simple act transformed an ordinary toilet into a valuable art object. Perhaps predictably, in the later 20th century, some [[https://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/pissing-in-duchamps-fountain/ other performance artists]] attempted to urinate in replicas of "Fountain" (Music/BrianEno even claims to have succeeded at it), mostly being prevented by museum security. This sets up a LogicBomb question: can we count it as misusing art as a toilet when it's a case of using a toilet as art?

* ZigZagged with MediaNotes/{{Dada}} artist Marcel Duchamp's famous piece "Fountain," in which he signed his name to a porcelain urinal and entered it into an art exhibition. This sparked a lively discussion on the nature of art, as the simple act transformed an ordinary toilet fixture into an art object. Perhaps predictably, in the later 20th century, some [[https://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/pissing-in-duchamps-fountain/ other performance artists]] attempted to urinate in replicas of "Fountain" (Music/BrianEno even claims to have succeeded at it). This sets up a LogicBomb question: can we count it as misusing art as a toilet when it's a case of using a toilet as art?

** Inverted in "Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming", where Grampa mistakes a porta-potty for an elevator.

** In "The Wandering Juvie", Homer mistakes a dressing room at Costington's for the bathroom.
--->'''Manager:''' Sir, other customers need to use that dressing room.

** Implied in "Sunday, Cruddy Sunday". Following Homer and his friends wrecking a bus taking them to Miami for the Superbowl, trip organizer Wally Kogen apologizes to the bus driver for them making a mess in the bathroom. The bus driver meekly asks, "What bathroom?"
** In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E1WhoShotMrBurnsPartTwo Who Shot Mr. Burns?" (Part Two)]], Grampa goes outside the family's house to relieve himself at the outhouse.
--> '''Lisa:''' We don't have an outhouse.
--> '''Homer:''' ''(gasp)'' My toolshed! ''(runs after Grampa)'' Oh, dad!
** Inverted example: In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS14E5HelterShelter Helter Shelter]]", while being shown around a 19th-century house they'll be staying at for a reality show, Homer mistakes a chamber pot for a helmet.

[[folder:Films - Live Action]]

* A Catholic priest is taking confession and hears someone entering the other side of the booth, followed by an awkward silence. Eventually he decides to knock on the dividing wall in order to get the confessor's attention. When he does so, a voice says "Don't bother knocking - there's no toilet paper in this stall either!"

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* ''VideoGame/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice'': Invoked in "Abe Lincoln Must Die!". Sam acts as an interpreter for Whizzer due to the President having a hard time understanding him. While the same can accurately translate, to progress involve him getting the President to give Whizzer a soda, causing Whizzer to need a bathroom, asking where it is. After that, Sam can translate Whizzer as asking for the Bathroom, President Lincoln's room, or the War Room. Whizzer will go to wherever Sam asks the President without question.
-->'''Max''': Sam, did you just make an innocent person defile one of the most famous rooms in U.S. history?

-->'''Sam''': Apparently, I did.

--->'''Customer''': Well, why do you have a washroom with no toilet?

-->'''Bruce:''' Oh, haha, you put some fake poo on the floor- ''(realizes it's real)'' OH NO! [[GetOut Get- Get out! Get out! Scat!]] ''(Peter runs out of the room)''

--> '''Lisa''': We don't have an outhouse.
--> '''Homer''': ''(gasp)'' My toolshed! ''(runs after Grampa)'' Oh, dad!

* [[https://www.koreus.com/video/pub-visual-saxophone.html A French ad for the Visual opticians chain store]] had a man entering in a music store to pee in a saxophone. Due to their shape and disposition (lined up against a wall, the big hole being at the right height and position), the saxophones could indeed have been mistaken for urinals by someone who is ''really'' vision-impaired.

* ''Anime/MyHime'': Downplayed. While serving as a part time Miko at Shiho's family shrine, Mikoto gets up saying she needs to go to the bathroom. She opens a door, and Shiho stops her, saying, "Don't go in there!" Shiho leads her off, and Mai sees the lovely wedding kimono in the room Mikoto had opened. Shiho informs Mai that it's not for the bride in the next day's ceremony, but set aside for Shiho herself.

* In one comic of the Dutch comic strip series ''Boes'' (form which the anime ''Anime/OxTales'' was adapted), a gorilla mistakes a puppet show booth for a toilet and relieves himself there, much to the surprise of the children that were watching the show.

* A man comes home late one night, very drunk, and tells his wife, "I've just had proof of the existence of God." When she asks what he means, he explains, "I really needed to pee when I got in. As I opened the toilet door, God turned the light on for me, then turned it off again as I was shutting it!" His wife frowns, rushes downstairs, confirms her worst suspicions and comes back up. "You idiot! You've peed in the fridge."
* A Catholic priest is taking confession, and hears someone entering the other side of the booth, followed by an awkward silence. Eventually he decides to knock on the dividing wall in order to get the confessor's attention. When he does so, a voice says "Don't bother knocking - there's no toilet paper in this stall either!"

* ''Series/BlackBooks'': In "The Blackout", Bernard visits his friends Gerald and Sarah in a drunken stupor, mistakes their kitchen for a bathroom and uses their wicker chair as a toilet.

* "Series/KathAndKim": Kim is in Ikea when she needs to go, however, when she does find a toilet, unknown to her it's a display and she has no idea.

* ''VideoGame/BattleBears'': In ''Battle Bears Zero'', Wil gets a PottyEmergency on the Ursa Major battleship and finds a door which he thinks is the one for the bathroom. It turns out to be an emergency exit and he [[PottyFailure pisses himself as he falls from a very high distance]].

* ''VideoGame/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice'': Invoked in "Abe Lincoln Must Die!". Sam acts as an interpreter for Whizzer due to the President having a hard time understanding him. While same can accurately translate, to progress involve him getting the President to give Whizzer a soda, causing Whizzer to need a bathroom, asking where it is. After that, Sam can translate Whizzer as asking for the Bathroom, President Lincoln's room, or the War Room. Whizzer will go to wherever Sam asks the President without question.
--> '''Max''': Sam, did you just make an innocent person defile one of the most famous rooms in U.S. history?
--> (''Whizzer returns, relieved'')
--> '''Sam''': Apparently, I did.

** A [[https://notalwaysright.com/not-a-fitting-washroom/126453/ customer]] thinks that the handicapped sign on a room means that it is bathroom and gets annoyed when the worker offers to show them but explains there is no toilet inside the fitting room.
---> '''Customer''': Well, why do you have a washroom with no toilet?

* ''WesternAnimation/BuzzLightyearOfStarCommand'': In "[[Recap/BuzzLightyearOfStarCommandE61SpeedTrap Speed Trap]]", Team Lightyear is placed on speed trap duty as a result of a botched meeting with the Porcelons, a group of aliens who resemble toilets. After Buzz, Mira and XR keep accidentally saying "sensitive" terms to the Porcelons, which were toilet-related puns, the meeting was ultimately botched when Booster, who's having a PottyEmergency as the other restrooms were closed for cleaning, mistakes the Porcelon ambassador for an actual toilet.

** The episode "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS12E18BabyGotBlack Baby Got Black]]" has Peter and friends [[SleepDeprivation trying to stay awake as long as possible]]. Eventually, said lack of sleep catches up to them, and they start hallucinating. Peter mistakes Quagmire for a toilet, and starts to try and poop on him. Thankfully, Quagmire is able to snap him out of it before anything happened.

** Inverted example: In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS14E5HelterShelter Helter Shelter]]", while being shown around a 19th century house they'll be staying at for a reality show, Homer mistakes a chamber pot for a helmet.

* ZigZagged with MediaNotes/{{Dada}} artist Marcel Duchamp's famous piece "Fountain," in which he signed his name to a porcelain urinal and entered it into an art exhibition. This sparked lively discussion on the nature of art, as the simple act transformed an ordinary toilet fixture into an art object. Perhaps predictably, in the later 20th century, some [[https://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/pissing-in-duchamps-fountain/ other performance artists]] attempted to urinate in replicas of "Fountain" (Music/BrianEno even claims to have succeeded at it). This sets up a LogicBomb question: can we count it as misusing art as a toilet when it's a case of using a toilet as art?

* "SeriesTheGoldenGirls": In episode Sophia has broken her glasses and has problems seeing things, she is about to go on the stool in the kitchen but Rose yells at her to stop when she asks why Rose is in the Bathroom. Dorothy tells her it's the Kitchen and she realises her mistake and that she tried to poach a egg in the toilet.

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'': In the [[Radio/GTARadio in-universe TV cartoon]] ''Republican Space Rangers'', Dick, one of the titular {{Space Marine}}s, has a PottyEmergency while attending a right-wing political rally after eating some [[TheFoodPoisoningIncident bad chicken wings]] and takes a giant dump in the dome of a scale model of the United States Capitol building on stage, having mistaken it for a toilet in his food-poisoning-induced delirium. It gets mistaken for an ExcrementStatement and prompts roaring applause from the crowd gathered, as well as a pair of shadowy alien financiers to look at backing him as a candidate for office.

* ZigZagged with MediaNotes/{{Dada}} artist Marcel Duchamp's famous piece "Fountain," in which he signed his name to a porcelain urinal and entered it into an art exhibition. This sparked lively discussion on the nature of art, as the simple act transformed an ordinary toilet fixture into an art object. Perhaps predictably, in the later 20th century, some [[https://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/pissing-in-duchamps-fountain/ other performance artists]] attempted to urinate in replicas of "Fountain" (Music/BrianEno even claims to have succeeded at it). This sets up a LogicBomb question: can we count it as using art as a toilet when it's a case of using a toilet as art?

* ''WesternAnimation/TUFFPuppy'': The episode "The Rat Pack" kicks off when Snaptrap mistakes a cloning machine inadvertently put out onto the curb by T.U.F.F. for a porta-potty, going on to create an army of clones that terrorize Petropolis.

* ''WesternAnimation/CatDog'': A variation in "Let the Games Begin!"; at the start of the episode, Cat admonishes dog for mistaking a dogcatcher's leg for a [[DogsLoveFireHydrants fire hydrant]].
* ''WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow'': The episode "American Prankster" has Rallo pulling pranks on people all over Stoolbend, one of them being disguising rooms like electrical rooms and stairwells as bathrooms. Cleaveland ends up falling for it twice.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'': At the start of "Billy and Mandy Save Christmas", a [[PottyEmergency very frantic Billy]] is in a long line. He assumes it's the line to the men's room, but a kid in front of him informs him that it's the line to see a MallSanta.

* [[https://www.koreus.com/video/pub-visual-saxophone.html A French ad for the Visual opticians chain store]] had a man entering in a music store to pee in a saxophone. Due to their shape and disposition (lined up against a wall, the big hole being at the right height and position), the saxophone could indeed have been mistaken for urinals by someone who is ''really'' vision-impaired.