History Main / OutOfContextEavesdropping

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' has Lincoln and his sisters overhearing their parents argue about Dad's 11 novelty neckties, and they think that they want to get rid of their kids. And after everything is cleared up at the end, it appears that [[HereWeGoAgain it's going to happen again]].

** In one episode, "The Grass is Greener", Timmy overhears his parents say that they'd be able to afford so much more nice things if they didn't have a son, but missed the part where they said despite that there's nothing that would make them wish they didn't have Timmy. Later, he sees what they're up to through a magic mirror, which is throwing all of his clothes and stuff away; Timmy promptly smashes the mirror and walks off in a huff just before his parents reveal that they threw all of his stuff out so they would have room for much nicer new stuff they bought for him.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/DonkeyKongCountry'' episode From Zero to Hero, Bluster Kong has an X-ray, which reveals something wrong with the machine. Bluster overhears Cranky, Donkey and Diddy Kong talking about how they just got Bluster's X-ray and "doesn't look good" and they'd "give it a week". However, Bluster leaves before he hears the context, thinking that he is the one they were talking about and that he is going to die soon.

* In ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' episode "Dreamscappers", while inside Grunkle Stan's mind, Dipper finds a memory of Stan mumbling to Soos "I can't stand him", "He's a failure", and "I just want to get rid of him", leading Dipper to believe that Stan was talking about him (hence the reason he makes Dipper work so hard). After coming across the memory again, Dipper hears that Stan was actually talking about how people used to treat him, leading up to Stan revealing that he actually cares for Dipper and [[MiseryBuildsCharacter is merely toughening him up]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': In "Eda's Requiem", Eda overhears Luz and King discussing King's decision to "le-", which, in the context of their conversation, leads her to believe that King is planning on leaving her when he finds his biological parents. This causes Eda to suffer from premature EmptyNest for most of the episode. At the end it turns out he wanted to le... [[spoiler:gally change his name to King Clawthorne to [[HappilyAdopted officially become part of her family]]. Cue TearsOfJoy.]]

** The page quote comes from "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS19E9EternalMoonshineOfTheSimpsonMind Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind]]", where Homer takes snippets of a conversation between Marge and Duffman and believes they are having an affair, though the situation is [[ZigZaggedTrope a little different]]. Homer actually ''had'' heard the entire conversation in context, and understood what was really happening, but in order to keep the surprise Marge worked so hard on, he drank on of Moe's [[LaserGuidedAmnesia forget-me-shots]] to forget the event, and could only remember snippets.

* In the 1947 comedy ''Film/{{Copacabana}}'', Lionel and Carmen have made up a fake stage persona, [[EveryoneLooksSexierIfFrench Mlle. Fifi]]. When they decide to dump the persona, an old woman hears them joking about it and misinterprets them as saying that they murdered Fifi (who no-one else knows was just Carmen in a veil with a [[EverythingSoundsSexierInFrench French]] [[GratuitousFrench accent]]). HilarityEnsues.

* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'': Bobby is chafing under his dad's miserly nature (and Hank really is a stick-in-the-mud about it) when he overhears Hank jokingly brag to Peggy that he "made $1,000 today." Bobby does some quick calculations under the belief he makes $1,000 ''every day'' and figures that his dad should have well over seven million dollars over twenty year. He then goes on a spending spree with his father's emergency credit card. What he doesn't realize is that Hank was telling Peggy about his annual bonus--it's a one-time thing, not a regular wage.

** In the episode "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS7E4GreasyBuffoonsModelSponge Model Sponge]]", [=SpongeBob=] overhears Mr. Krabs talking about how it's time for him to "let the little guy go", and assumes he's getting laid off from the Krusty Krab. After [=SpongeBob=] leaves the restaurant to find a new job, however, the audience sees that the "little guy" Mr. Krabs was referring to is actually a scallop. [=SpongeBob=], of course, doesn't know this until he returns to the Krusty Krab near the end, asking Mr. Krabs not to fire him.
** The earlier episode "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS3E7AsSeenOnTVCanYouSpareADime As Seen On TV]]" has [=SpongeBob=] (who had just recently appeared in a TV commercial and was letting it go to his head) overhearing part of a conversation between two fish as he was cleaning the restrooms: "Well, I knew this guy's acting was good, but his singing is phenomenal! I'm telling you, if this guy were to cut a solo record, it would be a hit!" He assumes they were talking about him (thus letting his fame go to his head even more), but they were actually talking about someone completely different.
** Another episode titled "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS7E2GrowthSpoutStuckInTheWringer Stuck in the Wringer]]" has [=SpongeBob=] yelling at Patrick for ruining his day by gluing him in the wringer. The Bikini Bottomites overhear this and take this out of context in believing [=SpongeBob=] was ''[[MadeOutToBeAJerkass bullying]]'' Patrick as the latter [[MinorInsultMeltdown runs off in tears]]. They then [[ShamedByAMob tell off [=SpongeBob=] by saying he deserves the predicament he's in]].
* In the ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'' episode “First First Contact”, Tendi walks into sickbay to see that she’s being removed from the manifesto for the ''Cerritos''[=‘=]s medical crew. After Rutherford confirms this, they both believe she’s being kicked off the ship. At the end of the episode, she talks to Dr. T’Ana and finds out she’s being moved to senior science officer crew because she was too good for grunt medical work.

* ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitchTheSeries'': In the episode, "Shush", Lilo and Stitch find an experiment that allows them to hear private conversation. They pass by Mertle's house and overhear her apparently making rude comments about her friends Yuki, Teresa, and Eleana (aka the "Yeeeah" girls) to which when they run into the three, Lilo relays what Mertle said about them causing a fallout between Mertle and them. It's only later it's found out that Mertle was taking about her old ''dolls'' that she was intending to throw out.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'': In "Little Miss Interprets", the girls overhear the Professor ranting about how poorly he made three cakes intended for a party he's throwing for them; from what they hear, they believe that he wants to get rid of them and make new Powerpuff Girls from scratch. Things get more intense when they hear the Professor talking to other characters, and they assume that they're in on it.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs'' episode "Smurf Me No Flowers", Brainy goes to talk to Papa Smurf about Lazy's problems with insomnia when he overhears Papa Smurf saying, "Oh, what a pity...if only he had come to me sooner, perhaps I could have helped, but now I'm afraid it's too late." Brainy thinks it's Papa Smurf talking about [[MistakenForDying Lazy's problems being a prelude to something worse]] and goes to tell his fellow Smurfs about it, but in reality it's Papa Smurf talking about Vanity's withered plant.

[[folder:Fanfiction]]

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': In the episode "Old Stan on the Mountain," Stan, having been hexed to become an old man after expressing his disdain for the elderly in front of one, assumes that climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro will break the hex, with Steve and Hayley agreeing to help him. While Stan is relieving himself, Steve and Hayley squash a bug and talk about how they should "put him out of his misery" and that they're sure "he'd rather die than live like this." Stan's hearing aid only picks up those parts, and he quickly assumes that they took him out to the mountains to kill him.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Arcane}}'' Powder spies on Vi and Mylo arguing about her after she lost their loot from a robbery, and runs off upset when Vi agrees that there are a lot of things she can't do. Had she stayed a little longer she'd have learned Vi was building up to listing, as things Powder "can't do", the ways Mylo had messed up the heist himself, such as boasting about their haul thus instigating the fight where Powder lost it.

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5664828/24/Harry-Potter-and-Future-s-Past Harry Potter and Future's Past]]'' Hermione's father overhears what he thinks is her and Harry having sex. When he bursts into her bedroom he finds her cleaning the computer screen, while Harry is playing solitaire.

* In ''Manga/TegamiBachiLetterBee'', As Nelli gets home from a shopping trip, she finds her IllBoy brother Nello writing a letter to their friend Jiggy Pepper, who left town to become a Letter Bee. Nelli hears Nello through the window, as he sobs and tells Jiggy that he's "so angry." Nello dies a week later, and Nelli assumes that he was angry with Jiggy for leaving them behind. In reality, Nello had promised Jiggy that he'd look after Nelli, and was angry about not being able to fulfill that promise.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/DonkeyKongCountry'' episode From Zero to Hero, Bluster Kong has an X-ray, which reveals something wrong with the machine. Bluster overhears Cranky, Donkey and Diddy Kong talking about how it "doesn't look good" and they'd "give it a week". However, Bluster leaves upset before he hears the context, thinking that he is the one they were talking about.

* Justified in an ''Series/{{Angel}}'' episode. Cordelia is magically shown several conversations her teammates have about her by the demon Skip, all of them seemingly very insulting towards her. However, Skip is actually deliberately showing her very specific parts of the conversations taken out of context for his own agenda.

* ''Series/SesameStreet'': In one episode, Maria is planning to see a movie titled ''Moving to Cleveland''. When Elmo hears her say the movie's title, he assumes she actually is moving there.

* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' had an episode where Dr. Doofenshmirtz believes that his daughter Vanessa overheard him say he would rather have a son than a daughter when he was just venting to Norm and spends the episode trying to wipe her memory of the ordeal. [[ShaggyDogStory It turns out, Vanessa didn't even hear him because she was wearing headphones.]]