This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Andyroid: Deleted the part comparing Aqua Teen Hunger Force to "Wacky Delly", completely off-topic.
Kayube: I remember one episode of the Addams Family cartoon in which they were trying to fail, but they kept succeeding, and at the end Morticia observed that because they succeeded, they actually failed at failing...
The Defenestrator: Ah, I can always count on this website to tell me when there's a new sbemail up.
wia: Actually, Wally's *inspiration* was someone Scott Adams knew who wanted to be fired for the severance package. It's a little doubtful that this is Wally's actual motivation because a)catbert invariably ensures all severance packages are essentially worthless and b)wally has been seen occasionally fighting to keep his job (Most amusingly, by joining the PHB's church and giving PHB and family lifts and bagels every weekend)
Coyotic Evil: Deleted the Lord Arthur Saville's crime entry. At first, I thought it could fit but the titular character is not trying to fail, just precipitating fate.
Psyclone: Removing:
- In an episode of Malcolm In The Middle, the boys vandalize a billboard, seeing it as just another one of their pranks. However, since the billboard was for a strip club, they get hailed as feminist heroes.
This doesn't fit in the trope at all. They weren't trying to fail anything: They were simply vandalizing a billboard, got caught, then came up with the whole "feminist protest" story to cover up their own asses.
Nerdorama: Regarding my Hideaki Anno theory, which someone commented upon...basically, just going by the sheer shock Anno exhibited at the Evangelion's popularity, it seems to me that he might have been trying to make a disturbing, unwatchable product that would fail almost instantly - probably not for money, but so he could justify suicide to himself (trust me, it takes a lot of self-convincing to go through with that). A different take on the Creator Breakdown story, basically. When it took off, he reassessed his life and decided to simply direct his self-loathing at his fanbase instead. Of course, I'm mostly making this theory up out of whole cloth, so it's probable I should just go stick it in Wild Mass Guessing, although that's mostly for in-universe theories.
arromdee: I removed much of the Uwe Boll section for the same reason as in the Uwe Boll article: The tax law gives a break to German companies; the loophole was that it was easy for non-German companies to be considered German companies. Boll's company is German for real, so closing the loophole doesn't affect him.
fleb: Cutting these two, because they're a different variation: The villain's sabotage attempts only improve the hero's good fortune. To YKTTW!
- * Hey Arnold: Helga Pataki whenever she tried to sabotage someone it always fails and it just about always ends up making what she's trying to ruin better(for example, loosening a wheel on a horse charge to ruin her sister getting closer to another girl, when the carriage goes out of control, the girl reveals she knows how to handle horses, leaps on to it's back, and stops the carriage. They then share a tear felt hug) . "Why don't my crazy schemes ever work!?"* Cats Don't Dance: Enfante Terrible Darla Dimple tries to sabotage the animals' big musical numbers by activating all the controls in the theater, but every switch she pulls just makes it more spectacular.
Madrugada: Deleted the following from the Truth In Television examples. Reason: it's either utter nonsense or it's a South Park example. If someone who knows South Park better can verify that it's from that show, feel free to put it back in the right place.
Ana: Removing:
- German actually has a word for this phenomenon, Scheissenbedaurn, which means the feeling one has when something has not gone as poorly as you had intended.
This is Gratuitous German and doesn't mean anything. This "term" probably originated here
and isn't the only invented word following the As Long as It Sounds Foreign bullshit route. My condolences for the Troper who actually paid money for this.
Premonition_45: Is it worth including the faux motivational poster "You fail at failing. No, that's not a double-negative." in the article?
CodeMan38: Is the Hemingway "Torrents of Spring" example actually a case of this? Hemingway's plan did succeed, so far as I can tell; it'd only be a Springtime for Hitler if Liverwright had kept him because he liked him better than Anderson.
