History Main / AntiAdvice

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[[quoteright:200:[[Webcomic/{{Swords}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sword199bt.png]]]]

* In the ''Manga/SoulEater'' anime's GeckoEnding, while Marie [[spoiler:and Crona]] search for Medusa, there's a montage of them searching a swamp. After a while [[spoiler:Crona]] decides to simply go in the opposite direction to the one Marie picked (both of them having NoSenseOfDirection was a RunningGag).

* PlayedForLaughs in ''Manga/HayateTheCombatButler''. Hayate is [[BornUnlucky notoriously unlucky]], and everyone not only knows it but [[LampshadeHanging discusses it regularly]]. At one point, Saki is gambling with Wataru's living arrangements on the line, and puts everything on a single spin of the roulette wheel. Wataru has the idea of calling up Hayate, asking him what color he would pick if he had to bet everything on a single spin of a roulette wheel, and placing the bet on the other color. [[spoiler:It works perfectly - good thing 0 or 00 didn't come up.]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' spin-off comic ''ComicBook/GargoylesBadGuys'', the Redemption Squad meets Thailog, who says "Fang can vouch for me." Fang says "Yeah, Thailog's my kinda gargoyle." They immediately know that Thailog can't be trusted. (It's hinted that Fang knew they'd go contrary to his advice.)
* In a [[ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse Donald Duck story]], "The Ducks Who Went Out In The Cold", Donald tried it on ''himself'' – he figured that since every single one of his plans ends with disaster, he should do the exact opposite of whatever seems most reasonable at the moment. For starters, in hopes of getting himself and his nephew to a tropical vacation, he went to Siberia.

* ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'' author Gary Larson mentioned in the comic's 10th anniversary anthology that he had a friend with a very weird sense of humor. Should said friend ever call him and say he really liked that day's cartoon, Larson knew he'd better start preparing for a storm of {{Strongly Worded Letter}}s from MoralGuardians.

* [[ComicStrip/RobotmanAndMonty Monty]] has a single-appearance friend who seemingly greatly values his opinion on movies, and calls him up regularly for advice and suggestions. He then goes with whatever Monty doesn't like, while avoiding the top recommendations like a plague.

* Used and lampshaded to hilarious effect in ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8059399/1/Mind_of_Aluminum Mind of Aluminum]]'' (a VisualNovel/FateStayNight fanfic), in which Rin allies with [[SmugSnake Shinji]] and does the opposite of whatever he suggests. Then subverted when Rin finds out that [[spoiler:Shinji has been sexually abusing Sakura,]] and he attempts ReversePsychology when she asks him if it was a good idea to "shatter every bone in his body and leave him with the rough physical capacity of a turnip."
-->'''Rin:''' "And you know? He thought it ''was!'' So I helped him out. He looked surprised, I admit. Like he expected me to… I dunno, do the opposite of what he suggested. But luckily, I respected him far too much for that."

* In ''FanFic/HarryPotterBecomesACommunist'', this was Harry's original inspiration for making the titular change: "Uncle Vernon was complaining about communists one day and I decided that anyone hated by Uncle Vernon couldn't be that bad. So I read ''[[Creator/KarlMarx The Communist Manifesto]]'' and discovered how the world really worked."
* ''Fanfic/TheMountainAndTheWolf'': Once the Wolf becomes the TokenEvilTeammate to Daenerys and the war is won, just about every piece of advice he gives her would be perfectly suitable only for the leader of a Chaos warband or other murderous lunatic. Daenerys ends up sparing several people she would otherwise have had executed solely because the Wolf suggested they be tortured to death in public to ensure her subjects would be appropriately terrified of her.
* In ''Fanfic/TheAwakeningOfAMagus'', when discussing what law firm Draco should use instead of the TheLawFirmOfPunPunAndWordplay his late father did, Ron recommends Clearwater, Clearwater & Boggs, to which Draco says they must be the right people because Lucius used to curse them to hell and back.

[[folder:Film]]

-->'''Murtogg:''' But why aren't we doing... what Mr. Sparrow said we should do?
-->'''Norrington:''' Because it was [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder Mr. Sparrow]] who said it.
* ''Film/LittleBigMan'' has a subversion, with General Custer suspecting that the titular character will lie and provide him false intel, thus leading to walking straight into the Battle of Little Bighorn.

* The short story "The Coming of the Goonga": an alien civilization figures that intelligent, well-informed rulers are not the way to go, because the more you know, the more options you see, and eventually you get bogged down with indecision. Their solution was the zeromaster, a "ruler" kept in a state of perfect, crystal-clear ignorance. The result: decisive orders and even future predictions guaranteed to be utterly and precisely wrong, thus guaranteeing excellent results if you do the opposite of what they say.
* At the end of Creator/HarryHarrison's ''Literature/{{Deathworld}} 2'', Jason tells former barbarian Ijale that her life in civilization will go reasonably well as long as she sticks with Mikah [[note]]who is TooDumbToLive, TheFundamentalist and KnightTemplar rolled into one[[/note]], listens carefully to what he tells her, and then does the exact opposite.

* ''Literature/MostlyHarmless'': Arthur Dent finds a soothsayer to ask about how he should continue his life. The Soothsayer hands Dent a large stack of photocopied pages, and explains that it's her autobiography, then adds (paraphrased) "If you follow this and do the opposite of what I did, you'll be fine." (And at least she recognizes what happened, compared to most of the other examples on this page.)
* Creator/RobertAHeinlein (probably via the notebooks of Lazarus Long) suggested that, when not certain who to vote for, one should find a well-meaning fool (of which there are many), and vote against whatever he advises.
** This is expanded upon in the nonfiction ''Take Back Your Government'': by taking anti-advice from a person (or newspaper) you disagree with, most of your mistakes will be voting for candidates and ballot measures with a ZeroPercentApprovalRating or against things LovedByAll, which, while it will make you feel silly, will not actually cause the right candidate to ''lose''--just get less of a landslide than they would if you were more careful.
* In ''[[{{Literature/Mash}} M*A*S*H Goes To Maine]]'' a particularly nasty medical problem forces the main characters to resort to the GM Test...a consultation with fellow doctor Goofus [=MacDuff=], renowned for masterfully summarizing every single aspect of a case and then drawing a completely wrong conclusion from it. [=MacDuff=] ends up recommending that they wait, so they operate immediately... and save their patient's life.
* ''Agaton Sax'' has a dog called Tikkie, who can be relied upon to like all evildoers and hate all policemen. So much so that in cases of doppelgangers, Sax asks his dog whom to trust and chooses the opposite.
* Russian humour writer Grigory Oster compiled several ''Harmful Advice'' books (written in verse) with the premise that children tend to do the opposite of what they're told, so if they do the same with his book, they should be just fine.
* In the ''Literature/HerculePoirot'' novel ''Literature/PerilAtEndHouse'', Captain Hastings is absolutely certain that one possible suspect is a solidly decent chap. Poirot had thought that he wasn't a ''very'' likely suspect, but decides that Hastings has "so strongly the flair in the wrong direction", that the man may worth investigating after all. [[spoiler:He turns out to be a drug dealer]].

* ''Series/HogansHeroes''. A bomb lands in Stalag 13. Hogan ends up having to disarm it, but is uncertain [[RedWireBlueWire what wire to cut]]. He asks Col. Klink for what wire he would cut, then cuts the other one. This case is special in that it's not about intelligence; Hogan just knows that Klink was BornUnlucky.

* In ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'', George laments that every instinct he has ever had in his entire life has been completely wrong, and has resulted in him becoming the pathetic loser that he is today. Jerry then suggests he do the opposite of whatever his instincts tell him to do, since if following them has led to failure, then doing the opposite must therefore lead to success. It works... [[StatusQuoIsGod at least for one episode]].
* Xavier does this on ''Series/HomeAndAway'' at one point, after Ruby kisses him and he debates with himself over whether to mention it to April. After John advises him to say nothing, Xavier rejects the advice specifically because it came from him. He tells April and the outcome is fine.
* Alfie does this to Jerome on ''Series/HouseOfAnubis'' when he asked Jerome for advice about girls. He claimed that the best part of being Jerome's best friend was knowing that the opposite of what Jerome said to do was the right thing to do.
* In ''Series/RedDwarf'', the crew meet Professor Irene Edgington, of the Erroneous Reasoning Research Academy (ERRA)[[note]]For those of you who don't speak English in an accent that makes the pun work, it's supposed to sound like "error".[[/note]]. She is wrong about everything, except for the last digit in a code to disarm explosive pants Lister is wearing. They figure out when to take her answer as truth when realizing the significance of her name, Irene E - Irony. Wouldn't it be ironic if she was right this time?
* Happens by accident in ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'': when asked for romantic advice, [[{{Sabotutor}} Tom gives deliberately terrible advice]] so he has less competition. But Tom is ''[[CasanovaWannabe awful]]'' with the ladies, so what he thinks is bad advice (like taking the high ground when dealing with your girlfriend's immature ex) is usually worth trying.
* In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITU86yFse58 one episode]] of ''Series/TheKingOfQueens'', a barista at [[KnowNothingKnowItAll Arthur]]'s favorite coffee shop starts taking his advice and experiences tremendous success as a result because, unknown to Arthur, she's really doing the opposite of whatever he says. When Arthur finally catches on, he spitefully sabotages her the next time she asks him for career advice by suggesting the ''opposite'' of what he would have normally said, resulting in the barista doing "the ''opposite'' of the opposite" and getting fired from the coffee shop.

'''Sheldon:''' That's helpful. ''[erases "dark matter" from the list]''

* ''{{Magazine/Analog}}'': One story from the 1970s featured an ObstructiveBureaucrat type who has been asked to consult on a project. He's pretty clearly suffering from cranial-recto inversion, but the project personnel seem to be taking him dead seriously. It turns out that the bureaucrat has been scientifically identified as someone who is always, always wrongheaded and therefore the project personnel know to do the exact opposite of his suggestions. Now that he and the other "canaries" have been identified and isolated in similar jobs, human progress is taking off like a rocket.

* In the Creator/CharlesDickens spoof ''Radio/BleakExpectations'' the protagonist Pip Bin builds a successful business empire by listening to the advice of his well meaning but wrong-headed friend Mr Skinflint Parsimonious (who is ironically the most generous of men), and then doing the opposite. He learns this the hard way, by taking all of Parismonious's advice the first time, and instantly becoming completely broke, after which Parsimonious says he could make money by giving people business advice then running after them telling them to do the opposite.
--> '''Pip:''' What do you think of the new name Mr Parsimonious?\\

* In ''VideoGame/SuikodenV'', Faylon asks Maroon and Muroon how to be a good brother, because he's not a very good one and the two of them have two sisters that love them. Maroon comments that he doesn't know since beavers age swiftly. He advises to act like [[PlayerCharacter the Prince of Falena]], but Faylon doesn't think he can do that good. Muroon then tells him to recognize [[PrinceCharmless Euram Barows]] and do the opposite of what he does.

* ''Webcomic/{{Spacetrawler}}'': Dustin is a colossal dumbass who has also deliberately tried to undermine the other protagonists' mission several times. So when Dustin [[http://spacetrawler.com/2012/02/19/spacetrawler-207/ tries to warn Pierrot]] that Curn, King of the Mirrhgoots, can't be trusted, that's what convinces a wavering Pierrot to trust Curn.
-->'''Dustin:''' Don't do it! They'll suck your brains out and-\\
'''Pierrot:''' Dusty thinks it's a bad idea, it must be sensible.

* In ''Webcomic/TheNonAdventuresOfWonderella,'' Wonderella has [[http://nonadventures.com/2010/05/15/schools-out-for-bummer some advice for the graduating class of 2010.]] After apologizing for her generation completely screwing everything up...
-->'''Wonderella:''' But that still leaves ''one'' crucial life lesson you can learn from us: ''failure''. The secret to your success is, apparently, doing the ''opposite'' of whatever we do.
* In a short storyline from ''Webcomic/PicturesForSadChildren'', a homeless man asks for Orbit brand chewing gum by name. The woman he's talking to (an advertising writer herself) asks how much Orbit is paying him to shill their gum. He admits that he's actually being paid by the competition, trying to make Orbit look worse by association.[[note]]Although it turns out immediately afterwards that he's a serial killer, and he just made up the whole gum sponsorship story.[[/note]]

* This is one use of WebVideo/{{Pat|StaresAt}}'s [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure Stand]], Crazy Talk. It activates at random to make Pat's statements and predictions untrue, and it's possible for other people to exploit this to their advantage (though Pat cannot activate Crazy Talk deliberately, so he just gets the worst of both worlds).

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'', "Pizza Delivery", [=SpongeBob=] and Squidward are lost. [=SpongeBob=] predicts which way to go using his pioneering skills, so Squidward goes the opposite way. The camera then pans over to show that their hometown was just over a ridge in the direction [=SpongeBob=] wanted to go.
* The same gag shows up in an episode of the Hub's ''WesternAnimation/{{Pound Puppies|2010}}'', with streetwise chihuahua Squirt ignoring the advice of dimwitted sheepdog Niblet and going the wrong way when lost in the Canadian wilderness.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Homer Simpson has a card in his wallet that tells him "Always do the opposite of what Bart says."
-->'''Bart:''' Blast that infernal card! ... ''[[ReversePsychology Don't]]'' give that card to me.\\
'''Homer:''' ''(goes to give him the card)'' Here ya go - No!

* On ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle'' there was a tribe of island natives who got their weather predictions from the egg of the Oogle bird. When the bird was no longer available, they substitute it with [[LordErrorProne Captain Wrongway Peachfuzz]] and simply expect the opposite from his predictions.
* "[[Recap/DuckTalesS1E9DimeEnoughForLuck Dime Enough For Luck]]" from ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'' had Scrooge team up with Gladstone Gander, whose [[BornLucky trademark luck]] had been supernaturally cursed. Scrooge exploits this fact at one point, by asking Gladstone to pick the direction and then going the opposite way.

* {{Invoked|Trope}} by Jimbo and Ned in ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''. When they discover that the Ku Klux Klan intends to support their status quo vote on the issue of the South Park flag, they worry that this will sway people into voting the other way, so they go to a Klan meeting in disguise and persuade the group to change their position on the issue.
* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Bonkers}}'' Lucky attempts this once he reaches a frustration point with his goofball partner, while behind the wheel of his squad car. It immediately backfires, as he crashes into a dead-end alley and gets ticketed by another police officer.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/LegendQuest: Masters of Myth'' episode "Gargouille", the team find their way out of the catacombs of Paris by asking Don Andrés for directions. And then, since he has NoSenseOfDirection, going the other way.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' spin-off comic ''ComicBook/BadGuys'', the Redemption Squad meets Thailog, who says "Fang can vouch for me." Fang says "Yeah, Thailog's my kinda gargoyle." They immediately know that Thailog can't be trusted. (It's hinted that Fang knew they'd go contrary to his advice.)

-->''If ever in your life you are faced with a choice,\\

And do exactly the contrary.''

* WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes director Creator/ChuckJones claims that this was the inspiration for the short ''WesternAnimation/BullyForBugs''. Supervisor Eddie Selzer, the [[ExecutiveMeddling studio-appointed]] successor to Leon Schlesinger, was well-known among the Termite Terrace animators for being wrong about everything. So when Selzer walked into Jones's office one day and declared, out of the blue, "Bullfights aren't funny!" (some have speculated that Selzer had seen a particularly brutal one on a recent European trip), Jones knew they ''needed'' to make a cartoon about a bullfight.

[[folder:Comics]]

** This is expanded upon in the nonfiction ''Take Back Your Government'': by taking anti-advice from a person (or newspaper) you disagree with, most of your mistakes will be voting for candidates and ballot measures with a ZeroPercentApprovalRating or against things with a HundredPercentAdorationRating, which, while it will make you feel silly, will not actually cause the right candidate to ''lose''--just get less of a landslide than they would if you were more careful.

* In one ''Comicbook/{{Batman}}'' story, in which Bruce takes down several criminals at a party while never breaking his RichIdiotWithNoDayJob persona, he foils a con artist simply by saying this sounds like a great investment opportunity and he's interested. All the other potential investors immediately disperse. (And Bruce then avoids investing himself by explaining he just has to run it past Lucius Fox.)

* In ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'', George figures out that since following his instincts never got him anywhere, if he did the opposite of what he'd usually do he would be successful. It works... [[StatusQuoIsGod at least for one episode]].

* In the ''Literature/HerculePoirot'' novel ''Peril at End House'', Captain Hastings is absolutely certain that one possible suspect is a solidly decent chap. Poirot had thought that he wasn't a ''very'' likely suspect, but decides that Hastings has "so strongly the flair in the wrong direction", that the man may worth investigating after all. [[spoiler:He turns out to be a drug dealer]].

* In the ''Manga/SoulEater'' anime's GeckoEnding, while Marie [[spoiler: and Crona]] search for Medusa, there's a montage of them searching a swamp. After a while [[spoiler: Crona]] decides to simply go in the opposite direction to the one Marie picked (both of them having NoSenseOfDirection was a RunningGag).

* PlayedForLaughs in ''Manga/HayateTheCombatButler''. Hayate is [[BornUnlucky notoriously unlucky]], and everyone not only knows it but [[LampshadeHanging discusses it regularly]]. At one point, Saki is gambling with Wataru's living arrangements on the line, and puts everything on a single spin of the roulette wheel. Wataru has the idea of calling up Hayate, asking him what color he would pick if he had to bet everything on a single spin of a roulette wheel, and placing the bet on the other color. [[spoiler: It works perfectly - good thing 0 or 00 didn't come up.]]

* In the ''Literature/HerculePoirot'' novel ''Peril at End House'', Captain Hastings is absolutely certain that one possible suspect is a solidly decent chap. Poirot had thought that he wasn't a ''very'' likely suspect, but decides that Hastings has "so strongly the flair in the wrong direction", that the man may worth investigating after all. [[spoiler: He turns out to be a drug dealer]].

* In ''Webcomic/TheNonAdventuresOfWonderella,'' Wonderella has [[http://nonadventures.com/2010/05/15/schools-out-for-bummer/ some advice for the graduating class of 2010]]. After apologizing for her generation completely screwing everything up...

* ''WesternAnimation/InsideJob'': Brett does this to himself, oddly enough, when Reagan comes up with a plan to [[ItMakesSenseInContext release a clone of President Kennedy so an elderly sniper can kill him and keep his job]].

-->'''Bart:''' ... ''[[ReversePsychology Don't]]'' give that card to me.\\

* In ''Series/RedDwarf'', the crew meet Professor Irene Edgington, of the Erroneous Reasoning Research Academy (ERRA). She is wrong about everything, except for the last digit in a code to disarm explosive pants Lister is wearing. They figure out when to take her answer as truth when realizing the significance of her name, Irene E - Irony. Wouldn't it be ironic if she was right this time?

* At the start of the third episode of ''{{Anime/Pokemon}} XY'', [[TheFashionista Serena]] is picking out an outfit for her journey but doesn't know what hat she wants to wear. She asks her mother if a red hat or a beret would look better, but when her mother prefers the beret, she throws it aside and settles for the red hat, because she feels that whatever her mother picks is the unfashionable choice.

* There's a sequence in the ''VideoGame/{{Deltarune}}'' demo where the party finds their way through a forest by actively ''not'' following the bumbling wannabe villain Lancer. However, this solution also leads to being chewed out by a third party (who's between allegiances) over letting Lancer, who obviously doesn't know what he's doing, get lost in the woods.

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[[quoteright:350:[[WebComic/{{Swords}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/edbd339c_8ee2_404a_8f7a_2189b37ee8be.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:They say in every lie, there's a grain of truth. [[spoiler:[[https://swordscomic.com/comic/CCXLVI/ Especially if it turns out it wasn't a lie in the first place]].]]]]

[[caption-width-right:350:They say in every lie, there's a grain of truth.]]

* In the ''Literature/HerculePoirot'' novel ''Peril and End House'', Captain Hastings is absolutely certain that one possible suspect is a solidly decent chap. Poirot had thought that he wasn't a ''very'' likely suspect, but decides that Hastings has "so strongly the flair in the wrong direction", that the man may worth investigating after all. [[spoiler: He turns out to be a drug dealer]].