History Main / TrappedTheWrongTarget

* In ''Anime/ZombieLandSaga'', while the girls are spending a period of time on the mountains, set up a trap to catch an animal for food. However [[CuteClumsyGirl Sakura]] proceeds to walk straight into the pit and is left defenseless as the boar they were trying to capture looms towards her.
* ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'': The many traps used by [[GoldfishPoopGang Team Rocket]] to capture Pikachu (or whatever Pokémon of the Day is featured) will sometimes catch the wrong Pokémon or person. For example, one trap they use involves a magnet to catch Pikachu (who has been sick with magnetism flu), only to end up catching tons of heavy Magnamite and Magneton instead, which then cause Team Rocket's sub to sink. And then there are times where they accidentally fall into their ''own'' traps because they forgot where put it.

-->'''Piglet:''' ''[not surprised]'' Oh, Pooh. You went back for the honey, didn't you? But I told you it was empty.\\

* ''WesternAnimation/TheRescuersDownUnder'': Played with; early in the film, Cody falls into a PitTrap that [[EvilPoacher McLeach]] made to capture animals. Naturally, the poacher is quite surprised to find out he captured a boy instead of an animal, and (unsuccesfully) tries to hide the fact he's a poacher by blaming his pet goanna Joanna for having dug the hole. Then [=McLeach=] realizes that Cody knows the location of the rare [[GiantFlyer giant eagle]] Marahute, and concludes he caught something he wants after all. Thus, he reveals his true colors and kidnaps the boy.

* ''Film/ChittyChittyBangBang'': The two Vulgarian spies try to trap Caractacus Potts driving Chitty with his children and Truly Scrumptious, but instead, they trap Truly's father, Lord Scrumptious's car.

* ''Literature/TheTwits'': Every wednesday, the Twits eat Bird Pie. So the night before, Mr. Twit sets a bird trap by coating the branches of the big dead tree in their yard with hugtight glue. Any birds unfortunate enough to spend the night in the tree get stuck and thus end up used for the bird pie. One time however, a group of young boys decided to climb the tree and got glued to the branches instead, scaring away any birds. When Mr. Twit found them the next day, he was so enraged he actually considered to [[IAmAHumanitarian use the boys to make pie instead]]. Fortunatey, they realized in time they could get free by [[GivingThemTheStrip slipping out of their pants]], since only those were stuck.

* An episode of ''Series/{{Lassie}}'' revolved around trying to get bear traps banned from the area after Lassie and later Timmy both get caught in one.

* In ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'', [[spoiler:Kaede sets up a complex trap to kill the mastermind, which ends up killing Rantaro when he goes to the library... or so she thinks. The mastermind took advantage of Kaede's trap and killed Rantaro in a way that made it seem as though Kaede's trap did the job. The survivors discover the truth in the final chapter, long after Kaede's execution]].

* Happens ''three'' times in the classic ''WesternAnimation/Ducktales1987'' episode "Dinosaur Ducks". Huey Dewey & Louie try and capture a baby dino but their traps only succeed in capturing a saber tooth tiger, a T Rex and ''themselves.''

* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'': In ''WesternAnimation/StopLookAndHasten'', [[WesternAnimation/WileECoyoteAndTheRoadRunner Wile E. Coyote]] sets up a [[PitTrap Burmese tiger trap]] to catch the Road Runner with [[SpecificSituationBooks after he reads the book]] ''How to Build a Burmese Tiger Trap''. Instead, he catches... [[ExactWords a Burmese tiger]].[[note]]Surprisibus! Surprisibus![[/note]] [[RuleOfFunny Somehow.]]

** In another episode, Rabbit, Tigger, and Owl try to [[HiccupHijinks cure Piglet's hiccups]] by [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext setting a trap and using a cake as bait.]] They end up catching Eeyore instead.

* In ''WesternAnimation/AWildHare'', WesternAnimation/ElmerFudd tries to catch WesternAnimation/BugsBunny with a BoxAndStickTrap. He catches a skunk instead, but [[DelayedReaction it takes him a while to find that out]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'': In the ChristmasEpisode ''Eleven Louds A Leapin'', Lana sets up various reindeer traps, but only manages to trap Luan (who, for good measure, was wearing a hairband with reindeer antlers).
* The ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead'' episode "The Rat" has the pair setting up a mouse trap after a long and painful process, using a nacho chip as bait. Later, Butt-Head tells Beavis to check the trap. When he walks into the kitchen, he forgets what he was supposed to be doing. The camera cuts back to Butt-Head on the couch while we hear Beavis say "Ooh, nachos!" followed by a loud snap and Beavis yelling in pain.
* ''WesternAnimation/RockyKwaterner'': In "Rocky Stands Guard", Rocky is convinced an intruder is stalking the house and sets several traps. Unfortunately, he [[PoorCommunicationKills forgets to inform the rest of the family]] about them and they end up getting caught in the traps instead.

* In ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'', Mike is threatened by Randall to return Boo to her room during lunch break. When Sulley hears of this, he refuses to let Boo go back to her room, knowing full well that Randall is planning something, so Mike goes inside the room and starts jumping on Boo's bed to prove that it isn't a trap. [[spoiler:As it turns out, it actually is a trap, and Randall ends up capturing Mike instead.]]

* In the ''Series/DadsArmy'' episode "Operations Kilt", the Walmington Platoon are taking part in a training exercise in which they must prevent a rival platoon from capturing their headquarters, and decide to use a series of ''Film/{{Tarzan}}''-inspired mantraps to catch them as they advance through the woods. When they fail to catch the platoon leader Captain Ogilvie, Corporal Jones offers to go out and attempt to lure him into the last trap, but owing to some confusion and poor timing ends up caught in the trap himself.

* ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'': [[GoldfishPoopGang Team Rocket]] will sometimes spring their own traps by mistake and put themselves out of commission for the rest of the episode. The most infamous is ironically their first pitfall trap in ''Anime/PokemonTheOriginalSeries''. They camouflage the pitfall trap so well that ''they'' immediately lost track of its location and [[EpicFail end up falling into said-trap in their attempts to find it]].

* Becomes a real EpicFail in an episode of ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' when [[GoldfishPoopGang Team Rocket]] somehow get themselves caught in their ''own'' traps. How that happened, as well as how they later escape, [[NoodleIncident is never explained]].

* ''WesternAnimation/WinnieThePooh'': Pooh and Piglet try to catch the "Backson" by covering a PitTrap with a picnic blanket and an empty honey pot. Later, after other shenanigans, Pooh sees a honey pot in the middle of the forest and goes for it.

* In Chapter 2 of VideoGame/{{Deltarune}}, Ralsei's unique action for the Maus enemy has him set a peanut butter trap for it, only for his teammate [[BigEater Susie]] to take the bait and get caught instead.

* ''Fanfic/KingsOfRevolution'': At the battle of Yokosuka, [[Franchise/CodeGeass Lelouch]] hides JLF General Katase's death and rigs a tanker of liquid sakuradite as a bomb. He intended to not only destroy the Britannians but take out an assassin working for TheEmpire as well. Unfortunate for him, the [[Franchise/LyricalNanoha Time-Space Administration Bureau]] was also after Katase. [[spoiler:With Lelouch unable to disarm the bomb, the tanker blows up the entire TSAB battalion and fails to kill any of his intended targets.]]

* In ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'', [[spoiler:Kaede sets up a complex trap to kill the mastermind, which ends up killing Rantaro when he goes to the library.]]

* In ''ComicBook/TheSandman'', Roderick Burgess and his occult group [[SummoningRitual perform a ritual]] intended to ensnare [[TheGrimReaper Death]], ostensibly so no one will ever have to die again. It screws up, and they get Morpheus, [[TheSandman Lord of Dreams]], instead. Even though he's not what they wanted, they don't know how to fix the ritual and are reluctant to just let him go, so he remains trapped for decades. This has horrific consequences, as all across the world people lapse into random comas or find themselves [[TheSleepless unable to sleep anymore]]. When Morpheus finally gets out [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge and is understandably pissed]], a terrified Alex Burgess (his father Roderick having since died) tries to placate him by explaining that the ritual was never intended for him, [[NotHelpingYourCase but his sibling Death instead]]. Incredulous, Dream points out that if they ''had'' succeeded in trapping Death, the repercussions would have been even ''worse''.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' has Beast Boy trying to prank Cyborg by setting up a trap in the hallway that'll hit him with a balloon filled with oil. Unfortunately, Starfire walks into the trap instead, leaving her confused and asking if she's being punished for something. Beast Boy tries to play it off instead of apologizing, leaving Starfire mad at him for the rest of the episode. He apologizes properly at the end of the episode.

* Anyone who does Trap,Neuter,Release of feral cats will likely have stories of catching opossums,raccoons, and various other critters in the live traps they use. It’s because of the food used as bait.

* ''ComicStrip/GetFuzzy'': From [[https://www.gocomics.com/getfuzzy/2006/06/25 this strip]], an example of the "big dude or creature who happened to get in the way" variety; Bucky Katt rigs up a "tweeter trapper" to catch a bird, but instead catches toothy and evidently quite annoyed dog.

* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'': In ''WesternAnimation/StopLookAndHasten'', [[WesternAnimation/WileECoyoteAndTheRoadRunner Wile E. Coyote]] sets up a [[PitTrap Burmese tiger trap]] to catch the Road Runner with [[SpecificSituationBooks after he reads the book]] ''How to Build a Burmese Tiger Trap''. Instead, he catches... [[ExactWords a Burmese tiger]][[note]]Surprisibus! Surprisibus![[/note]]. [[RuleOfFunny Somehow.]]

* In one ''ComicStrip/KnightsOfTheDinnerTable'' plotline, the Knights try to retrieve the dice taken and hoarded by B.A.'s [[CatsAreMean psycho cat]] [[FormallyNamedPet Colonel Prowler]]. For obvious reasons, the first step in the plan is to trap Colonel Prowler. While Bob is down in the crawlspace retrieving dice from the hoard and B.A. is guarding the box holding the cat, a neighbor girl comes looking for ''her'' cat, which turns out to be the one actually in the box.

* In one ''ComicStrip/KnightsOfTheDinnerTable'' plotline, the Knights try to retrieve the dice taken and hoarded by B.A.'s [[CatsAreMean psycho cat]] [[FormallyNamedPet Colonel Prowler]]. For obvious reasons, the first step in the plan is to trap Colonel Prowler. While Bob is down in the crawlspace retrieving dice from the hoard and B.A. is guarding the box holding the cat, a neighbor girl comes looking for ''her''cat, which turns out to be the one actually in the box.

* ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'': The page image comes from [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1990/12/19 this comic]], where Jon falls for a trap Garfield set up for Santa Claus.

* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'': In ''WesternAnimation/StopLookAndHasten'', [[WesternAnimation/WileECoyoteAndTheRoadRunner Wile E. Coyote]] sets up a [[PitTrap Burmese tiger trap]] to catch the Road Runner with. Instead, he catches... [[ExactWords a Burmese tiger]][[note]]Surprisibus! Surprisibus![[/note]]. [[RuleOfFunny Somehow.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'': In ''WesternAnimation/StopLookAndHasten'', [[WesternAnimation/WileECoyoteAndTheRoadRunner Wile E. Coyote]] sets up a [[PitTrap Burmese tiger trap]] to catch the Road Runner with. Instead, he catches... [[ExactWords a Burmese tiger]]. [[RuleOfFunny Somehow.]]

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' audio "[[BigFinishDoctorWhoNEDAS4E2SituationVacant Situation Vacant]]", when the Eighth Doctor investigates an ad someone posted claiming to be a time-traveller seeking a companion, one of the applicants, Asha, is revealed to be a bounty hunter trying to capture the person who posted the original ad. once the Doctor clarifies that he isn't the person responsible, he repairs her damaged teleportation equipment and allows her to leave Earth.

Subtrope of SpannerInTheWorks. Sister trope to SelfOffense, BullyingADragon and PityTheKidnapper. See also HoistByHisOwnPetard for one who gets caught by their own trap. May lead to UnintentionallyNotoriousCrime or MurderByMistake if the trap is deadly.

* ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'': The page image comes from [[https://garfield.com/comic/1990/12/19 this comic]], where Jon falls for a trap Garfield set up for Santa Claus.