History Main / WeWereRehearsingAPlay

* [[WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic]]'s joking theory as to why ''[[Film/TheRoom]]'' was made: Tommy Wiseau was embarrassed over his sex tape being discovered, so he claimed it was just a scene from an independent movie he was making, which he then had to actually make.

* [[WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic]]'s joking theory as to why ''[[Film/TheRoom]]'' was made: Tommy Wiseau was embarrassed over his sex tape being discovered, so he claimed it was actually a scene from an independent movie he was making, which he then had to actually make.

A subtrope of BlatantLies. Compare HurricaneOfExcuses. Compare ItsForABook. See also AllPartOfTheShow, FilmFelons.

* The ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'' example gets taken to extremes -- there's another instance played straight in the movie ("She's Out of our Hair"), and the DVD includes a feature showing the staging of the musical, and excerpts from several scenes.

-->'''Chandler:''' Hey, you kissed my mom!
-->''[People around the cafe look towards them]]''
-->'''Ross:''' ...We're rehearsing a Greek play.
-->''[Everyone buys it. Sometime later, Chandler grabs Ross's finger and bends it. Ross falls onto one knee, and everyone looks at them again.''
-->'''Ross:''' ...Still doing the play.
-->''[Chandler twists Ross's finger. Ross groans in pain, before realizing people are looking again and covering it up with opera singing.]''

* Used for comic relief in ''Literature/TheWellOfMoments''. Jasmine and Wesley (an assassin) have an intense discussion over lunch about his missing brother: he thinks she killed him (she didn't), she denies creating the rumors he's still alive (she did). When their banter draws the alarm of another customer in the restaurant, they use this line. To sell the rehearsal excuse, Wesley drops his native Kiwi accept and asks if he's doing it right.

* ''Series/{{Friends}}'': Ross says this when strangers overhear him arguing about how he [[IBangedYourMom got caught kissing Chandler's mother]]. Chandler doesn't buy it though.

-->'''[People around the cafe look towards them]]''

-->'''Chandler:''' Hey, you kissed my mom!\\

'''Ross:''' ...We're rehearsing a Greek play.

* ''Series/{{Friends}}'': Ross says this as an excuse when [[IBangedYourMom he got caught kissing Chandler's mother]]. Chandler doesn't buy it though.

'''Ross:''' We're rehearsing a Greek play.

* ''Series/{{Friends}}'':
-->'''Chandler:''' Hey, you kissed my Mom.\\

* ''Film/GingerSnaps'' has a related example, when the girls, unable to clean up the place of a fatal accident quickly enough, mask it as the scenography for their morbid photographic art.
* ''Film/TheLeagueOfGentlemen'': The criminals use this excuse when some CampGay actors (including a young Creator/OliverReed) interrupt their planning session for TheCaper. In this case the usual BlatantLies is avoided, as the trope had clearly been prepared in advance.

* The inversion also appears in ''Series/{{Blackadder}} the Third'', where it's set up by a RunningGag about how Prince George [[TheDitz can't tell the difference between theater and real life]].
* Invoked near on word for word in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "The Caretaker" when Clara is caught stopping an alien attack on the school where she teaches. Her co-worker/boyfriend is ''not'' impressed and [[GenreSavvy immediately figures out]] that both the thing she's fighting and Clara's unfriendly co-conspirator are aliens, hilariously assuming that she is one as well. Ultimately it's played for drama that Clara would rather make up a completely obvious lie than try to explain what's really going on to her boyfriend, who would probably believe the truth.
* The ''Series/{{MASH}}'' episode "Hey, Doc" does the inversion with Radar and Klinger. One is proposing to the other.

* This happened in the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Time's Arrow part II".
* In an episode of ''Series/{{Cheers}}'', Woody is in a play, but is afraid that his girlfriend Kelly won't approve. He hides it from her, but she eventually walks in on him practicing a kiss with his co-star. Kelly runs from the room crying. "You're in a play and you didn't even tell me!"

* Inverted in an episode of ''Series/SanfordAndSon'', in which Lamont is preparing for the title role in Shakespeare's ''Othello''. Fred witnesses Lamont and his acting teacher Marlene rehearsing the scene where Othello strangles Desdemona, and mistakes it for an actual murder. Fred [[HollywoodHeartAttack freaks out]].

->"Oh, hey. We're rehearsing a - a scene for the upcoming company play called uh, ''Put That Thing Back Where It Came From Or So Help Me!''. It's a musical."
-->-- Mike Wazowski, ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc''

-->-- ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc''

[[folder: Anime & Manga ]]

* In ''{{Manga/Dramacon}}'' Derek says it at the beginning at a customer who caught Chris and him arguing.

[[folder:FanFic]]

* ''FanFic/TheInfiniteLoops:'' [[Series/AvatarTheLastAirbender Sokka]] has found that no matter what implausible thing happens, he's been able to pass it off as simply the Ember Island Players rehearsing for a play. Even when this involves a blind, bright orange pony in a Stetson earthbending in broad daylight.

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

'''Agent K:''' Beats you? ''[Starts shaking Frank around]''\\
'''Frank:''' ''[Starts yelping]''\\
'''Agent J:''' ''[To a passerby]'' They're rehearsing a ventriloquist act.
* ''Film/MoulinRouge''. Gets taken so far that said play ends up actually being written.

* ''Film/TheLeagueOfGentlemen''. The criminals use this excuse when some CampGay actors (including a young Creator/OliverReed) interrupt their planning session for TheCaper. In this case the usual BlatantLies is avoided, as the trope had clearly been prepared in advance.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* The ''Series/{{Mash}}'' episode "Hey, Doc" did the inversion with Radar and Klinger. One was proposing to the other.

* Played with in ''Series/TheWildWildWest'' episode "The Night of the Turncoat." A public disturbance involving the main characters is explained away by one of them as a scene from a play which their "troupe" has come to perform in the town. While technically untrue, in actual fact the whole thing ''was'' staged by the main characters as part of a larger infiltration plot.

** Inverted in one episode where Homer was heard shouting, "I'm going to kill you" in an angry tone, and Marge thought he had snapped. It turned out that Homer and Bart are rehearsing for a play, and Homer was just reading the play's title, ''I'm Going To Kill You'', aloud.

[[folder:Video Games]]
* During a task in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'', Niko has the job description described to him, in a roundabout, not really implicating way, in a car that his employer's other agent (the man explaining the job) thinks may have listening devices in it. Niko then bluntly sums up the assignment to be sure he understood, leading his co-worker to quickly state, for the benefit of anyone listening, that he does not really know Niko, and that they are rehearsing for a night school drama class they attend together.
[[/folder]]

* Inverted in an episode of ''Series/SanfordAndSon'', in which Lamont is preparing for the title role in Shakespeare's ''Othello''. Fred witnesses Lamont and his acting teacher Marlene rehearsing the scene where Othello strangles Desdimona, and mistakes it for an actual murder. [[HollywoodHeartAttack Fred freaks]].

* Inverted in an episode of ''Sanford and Son'', in which Lamont is preparing for the title role in Shakespeare's ''Othello''. Fred witnesses Lamont and his acting teacher Marlene rehearsing the scene where Othello strangles Desdimona, and mistakes it for an actual murder. [[HollywoodHeartAttack Fred freaks]].

* Invoked near on word for word in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "The Caretaker" when Clara is caught stopping an alien attack on the school where she teaches. Her co-worker/boyfriend is ''not'' impressed and [[GenreSavvy immediately figures out]] that both the thing she's fighting and Clara's unfriendly co-conspirator are aliens, hilariously assuming that she is one as well.

[[folder:Film]]

* In ''{{Dramacon}}'' Derek says it at the beginning at a customer who caught Chris and him arguing.

* Invoked near on word for word in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "The Caretaker" when Clara is caught stopping an alien attack on the school where she teaches. Her co-worker/boyfriend is ''not'' impressed and [[GenreSavy immediately figures out]] that both the thing she's fighting and Clara's unfriendly co-conspirator are aliens, hilariously assuming that she is one as well.

* Invoked near on word for word in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "The Caretaker" when Clara is caught stopping an alien attack on the school where she teaches.