Obvious Object Could Be Anything

"I hope it's an iPhone."

A character receives an unmarked present, usually a gift. Think back to X-Mas when you were a kid, and how with some basic shaking, weighing, and appraisal of shape, you could pretty much guess what the object was.

Now imagine a Cloudcuckoolander receiving a present. Current theories on what's inside: either a pony, an astronaut helmet or one of those roombas that's been covered in hair to look like a tribble.

This is a trope played for comedy in which characters are incapable of ascertaining facts that are pretty obvious to normal folk. Another variation is that a more intelligent character responds to the gift sarcastically invoking this trope. In this case, odds are good that the gift in question will turn out to be something completely different from the implied shape. Either way, Hilarity Ensues.

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Examples:

Advertising

• Subverted in a 2013 Target commercial where what is "obviously" a vacuum cleaner reveals a tablet computer.
• A Corn Pops cereal commercial has a teenage birthday girl presented with a car-shaped tarp. She pulls back the tarp and finds the titular cereal underneath. She's ecstatic.
• A KFC commercial features two kids opening their Christmas presents. The boy's package is bicycle-shaped, the girl's is dog-shaped. They're both KFC 5 Dollar Fill-up menus.

Comic Strips

• A MAD cartoon had a wrapped gift the shape and size of a bicycle; it was a wristwatch.
• In a Garfield strip, Odie is shown shaking a wrapped bone, then wondering what it could be.
• The same thing happens in a Hägar the Horrible strip, when the family gives a wrapped bone to Snert for Christmas, after calling him "the smartest dog in the world".

Fan Works

• In Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series, Marik thinks that his snake-shaped present might contain the Buzz Lightyear figure he always wanted.
• In A Very Potter Musical, Hermione gives Harry and Ron a wrapped gift that is quite obviously a book, but they think it might be a puppy.

Literature

• Played straight or averted, depending on which incarnation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone you're experiencing, when Harry gets his Quidditch broom. In the book, Harry is instructed not to open his broomstick shaped package in the Great Hall as the teachers don't want the other kids to notice and get jealous. In the movie, there is no note, as the suggestion looks even more ridiculous when you can actually see the package. The broom in the book is in a box of some sort or wrapped ambiguously, since nobody in the Great Hall could tell what it was by sight — Malfoy has to physically hold the package to know what it was. However, in the film, it's very obviously a broomstick wrapped in paper. Harry and Ron can't figure out what it is, prompting Ron to suggest that they open it to find out, and Harry still has the astonished "It's a broomstick!" reaction from the book. The movie qualifies for this trope, but the book doesn't.

Live-Action TV

• In the Christmas Episode of Happy Days Ritchie's brother Chuck (who is going to college on a basketball scholarship) gets a round object covered in paper.
  Joanie: Here's a present from Richie to you. What do you think it is? bounces it to Chuck
  Chuck: Hey, watch it. shakes It might be something breakable.
• In one episode of Community, Troy points out that his present is an even bigger secret. His present is a remote control helicopter, with even the blades being individually wrapped.
• Tom does the sarcastic version in an episode of Blue Heelers when he is looking over his granddaughter's Christmas presents, one of which is a toy giraffe that is so tightly wrapped that even the individual horns are distinguishable.
• Horrible Histories: In the "Scary Special", a deliveryman delivers what is obviously a scythe wrapped in brown paper. Death wonders what it could be, and when the deliveryman tells him it's a scythe, Death tells him off for ruining the surprise.
• Nickelodeon's Ho Ho Holiday Special has a sketch about a fake game show called Guess the Gift, where you guess an item that's hidden behind gift-wrapping and you get to keep the present if you answered correctly. One contestant (played by Benjamin Flores Jr. of Game Shakers) guesses two wrapped items that look like a guitar and a bike, but they turn out to be a bunch of rolled-up socks. The third time around, he sees what looks like a car and guesses rolled-up socks. Nope! It was a car!

Puppet Shows

• A Sesame Street skit has Kermit offer Cookie Monster a cookie if he can guess what's in the box. Cookie Monster shotguns off a long list of guesses, none of which could fit in the box.

Web Comics

• In one strip of Questionable Content, Marten gets a large envelope from his mother. Faye hopes it might be a pony, and when it's pointed out that the envelope is far too small, she argues that it might be "A collapsible pony". (Turns out it's an embarrassing T-shirt.)
• Sluggy Freelance has one xmas strip where Riff and Torg got each other their usual present, a beer. They open them and chug them, Torg remarks on how predictable they are, and Riff mentions that he actually got Torg habanero hot sauce.
• In one strip of Precocious, Autumn pretends to be surprised at getting gift cards even though, as Tiffany points out, "You ordered us to get those for you, Autumn."
  Autumn: Moving on! This next card is from Kaitlyn. What could be inside?
  Kaitlyn: Anthrax.

Western Animation

• Family Guy:
  • Invoked when Brian (who drinks a lot) receives a bottle-shaped package at Christmas and sarcastically wonders what it could be. Turns out it's a book.
  • Peter and Lois have agreed to go to a meeting about timeshares for the sole purpose of receiving a free boat for going to the meeting. When they're about to accept the gift, the salesman suggests that they could take the Mystery Box instead of the boat, said mystery box being about the size of a shoe box. Peter excitedly demands the mystery box over Lois' protestations, exclaiming that it could be anything, even a boat! It's not.
• The Simpsons: A contest to pick an image for the cover of the new phone book had a TV ad showing a "Mysterious" prize that was wrapped in a way anyone could notice it was a bicycle. As if it wasn't obvious enough, a kid at the commercial showed up and started riding it (with the bicycle still wrapped).
• The Fairly OddParents!: In "Merry Wishmas", Timmy wanted a sled for Christmas. As he unwrapped a package that seemed the sled under the trope, he found a snow shovel.
• Classic Disney Shorts: In "Pluto's Party", Pluto receives a present that looks like a giant bone. When he unwraps it and tries to take a bit out of it, he realizes it's really a red wagon.

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