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| - Bob is angry with Alice for whatever reason. Alone with Charlie, he begins to describe in explicit detail exactly what he hates about Alice, or otherwise begins insulting Alice. Alice, however, has arrived and is standing right behind Bob just as the list starts getting truly nasty. Charlie can see this, and tries to guide Bob away from his rant. Bob, however, is just getting warmed up, and rolls over Charlie's warnings... until they finally sink in. And then... "She's standing Right Behind Me, isn't she?" Whereupon Alice makes her presence known. Needless to say, things do not end well for Bob.
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| abstract
| - Bob is angry with Alice for whatever reason. Alone with Charlie, he begins to describe in explicit detail exactly what he hates about Alice, or otherwise begins insulting Alice. Alice, however, has arrived and is standing right behind Bob just as the list starts getting truly nasty. Charlie can see this, and tries to guide Bob away from his rant. Bob, however, is just getting warmed up, and rolls over Charlie's warnings... until they finally sink in. And then... "She's standing Right Behind Me, isn't she?" Whereupon Alice makes her presence known. Needless to say, things do not end well for Bob. There's a variant in which Dorothy, who's a friend, relative, or love interest of Alice, takes Alice's place. Another variation shares with the Engineered Public Confession: the Big Bad makes his Just Between You and Me confession to his victim, just as an authority figure (particularly the authority to arrest/kill him) gets into earshot. Originally, this was a clever Lampshade Hanging in response to too-common scenes where a character would complain about another, but be unaware that the second character walked within earshot at just the right time to overhear everything. As viewers began to expect the subject of the complaint to appear, writers responded by having the characters expect it, and say the "he's right behind me, isn't he?" line, usually without variation. Since then, however, Right Behind Me has become just as common and hacky, becoming a Dead Horse Trope. In-combat variations No, I Am Behind You and its response Snap to the Side remain popular. Compare with Last-Second Word Swap, Bathroom Stall of Overheard Insults. An obvious variation is Right in Front of Me. Contrast with I'm Standing Right Here where the speaker knows (or should know) that the target of their conversations is there with them. You can use this as a basis for tricking someone with Look Behind You!. Contrast Oblivious Mockery, when a character mocks some action in front of someone who dit it, without knowing it. Finally, see Stealth Hi Bye for the version that doesn't land anybody in trouble. Examples of Right Behind Me include:
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