History Main / BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor

* The Creepypasta titled "The Wishes".

* From one of WebVideo/TheCinemaSnob's reviews, ''Beware Children At Play''...

* ''DragonBallZAbridged'':

* In WebAnimation/LuckyDayForever, [[spoiler: 514 finally wins the lottery in this film, but he gets locked into the Lotus-Eater Machine and gets used as resources for the Whites]].

* In the ''Tales of the Folly'' series in the ChakonaSpace setting, you really should be careful what you wish for on the [[CoolStarship Folly]], as there are a number of fairly mischievous, and meddlesome Rakshani Deities hanging around. The trope is lampshaded word-for-word on a couple of occasions.

* This trope is the entire premise of ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddparents'', and played various ways in different episodes.

* ''MyLittlePony''

* ''WesternAnimation/ExtremeGhostbusters'': The team fought a wish-making ghost who functioned as a LiteralGenie. It turned Eduardo into Kylie's cat (because he "wanted her to treat him with the same respect she does her cat"). The episode was actaully titled "Be Careful What You Wish For".

* Towards the end of ''[[DisneyFairies TinkerBell and the Last Treasure]]'', Tink accidentally uses the [[PirateBooty Mirror of Incanta]], which she intended to use to repair the [[MineralMacGuffin broken moonstone]], when she snaps at her NonHumanSidekick, "I wish you would be quiet for just one minute!"

* The Human [=CentiPad=] epsidoe of ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' has Cartman demanding God to "give me a courtesy lick before I get fucked!" after Cartman loses his [[Film/TheHumanCentipede Human Centipede]]/iPad hybrid. God complies by smiting Cartman with a bolt of lightning, landing Cartman in the hospital.

* In ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb Get Busted'', Candace busts Phineas and Ferb on building an unsafe airlift, and their mother sends them away to a reformatory school; at first, Candace is glad they are away, but it is not too long before she begins to miss them. [[spoiler:Then when she finds out [[TheAlcatraz how the reformatory school is run]].]] Candace's friend Stacy even calls her out on this:

* ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'': In one episode, Garfield found a wishing well and wished there were no more mondays. At first, when he learned the wish became true, he was happy. A few weeks later, Garfield felt the drawbacks of a world without mondays: the streets were full of garbage because garbagemen only came at Mondays; gyms that used to be open for all days of the week were closed; movie theaters never showed new movies because they only changed their movies at Mondays; Jon couldn't buy more food because he always received his paychecks at Mondays; and he always made lasagna at Mondays. Being a BigEater, the two last bits were what horrified Garfield the most. He then returned to the wishing well, desperately asking for the mondays to be back. The well refused and threatened to remove other stuff, until the well's mother, who revealed they were actually aliens who look like wells, forced him to restore everything back to normal. Garfield then started loving Mondays. At least until he was reminded of why he hated them in the first place.

* "A Case of Spring Fever", was parodied in ''TheSimpsons''; a 1950s educational film has a young man foolishly wish that ''zinc'' didn't exist (?!), which proceeded to ruin his life because he couldn't (a) drive his zinc-less car to pick up his girlfriend for a date; (b) call his girlfriend to postpone their date with his zinc-less telephone; and (c) shoot himself in despair (as even the hammer in the gun was made of zinc). The young man is quick to regret his desire for a world without zinc ("Zinc! Come back!"); fortunately, it turns out to be AllJustADream.

* King Midas. A notoriously greedy man, he once made a wish that everything he touched would turn to gold. When his wish was granted, he was ecstatic... [[BlessedWithSuck at least until the first time he tried to eat something]]. In another version of the story, he turns his daughter into gold. Thus this is OlderThanFeudalism.

* ''HouseholdGods'' begins when Nicole, fed up with life in modern-day LA, tells what she believes to be perfectly ordinary statues of the Roman gods Liber and Libera that she wished she could live in ancient Rome. Liber and Libera deem it an excellent request, and are all too happy to grant it.

* In ''{{Smallville}}'', ''Hex'', Chloe wished to become Lois. [[LiteralGenie Zatanna]] complies. HilarityEnsues.
** In Apocalypse, Clark wishes he hasn't existed as he brought so much pain and suffering. [[spoiler:ItsAWonderfulPlot.]]
* Series/SesameStreet: The Amazing Mumford and Abby Cadabby lack both the skill to control their magic and the ability to undo their mistakes. A number of episodes are based on this.
* In an episode of TopGear devoted to Lamborghini, James May learns this the hard way when he finally gets to drive the car of his dreams, the Countach. He lampshades this without mentioning the trope by name.

* The plot of ''{{Beetleborgs}}'' centers around three kids who wish to be their favorite comic book superheroes. Consequently, the villans also appear, handing out several {{Curb Stomp Battle}}s over the course of the series. The first episode of the second season, ''Metallix'', also showed that the wish had a second part - you get the powers, you get the bad guys. No more bad guys? No more powers. Thankfully, new bad guys showed up and the kids were back in action.

* ''TheCosbyShow'' did this plot, with Theo as the teenager who wanted to be treated like an adult, in its first season, but it has appeared in other series as well.
* ''Series/ICarly'': The ChristmasEpisode ''iChristmas''. Carly wishes for Spencer to be normal, and an ''It's a Wonderful Life'' style homage ensues, ending with Carly more appreciative than ever of her life.

* ''{{Newsradio}}'' did a hilarious variation on this where Dave and Lisa put Bill in charge of the station for a day in order to show him how hard their jobs were; the twist was that Bill knew what they were doing from the start (going so far as to ask if they were doing it), but he still played along until they admitted to what they were doing.

* ''AreYouAfraidOfTheDark'':

* ''Series/BattlestarGalacticaReimagined'':

* ''Series/BabylonFive''.

** Another thing Londo desires, is to get a better position at court [[ReassignedToAntarctica rather than the ambassador to Babylon 5]]. He eventually gets everything he asked for, [[spoiler:and ends up Emperor of the Republic for good measure]]. The process takes the next three seasons to fulfil and leads to several major galactic wars and millions of casualties.

* The Imagin of ''{{Kamen Rider Den-O}}'' operate on this trope. They seek out people and grant their wishes, but only in letter. In one episode, when a park groundskeeper wished to make his park a safe haven for strays, the Imajin granting the wish responded by attacking any human who set foot in the park and barricading the entrances.
* DisneyChannel had a weekend special where they did this with 3 of their shows:
** ''HannahMontana''- Miley wishes she was just Hannah Montana all the time. It is granted and her dad married a GoldDigger, her best friend became AlphaBitch, and her brother became a hobo.

** ''TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody''- Zack and Cody wish that they were superheroes. After having to defeat now-supervillian Mr. Moseby, the twins learn they'll have to fight evil 24/7 and give up all their free time. This prompts them to try and fix things by running fast enough to travel through time, to before they made the wish.
* Though not an actual wish, also in ''TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody'', the episode "The Suite Smell of Excess", Zack and Cody get a chance to go to an alternate world where everything is reversed and they can play around as much as they like and do whatever they want when they want. However after a few days of excess, they realize that the "preferred" alternate universe Tipton is NOT the perfect place they thought it would be.

* Many ''Series/TheTwilightZone'' episodes used this trope. One notable one being "Time Enough at Last" starring Burgess Meredith. He wanted to be left alone so he could read and wound up the lone survivor of a nuclear war...[[CruelTwistEnding with broken glasses]].

* Perhaps unsurprisingly, ''FantasyIsland'' employed this trope quite often.
* The ''Series/TalesFromTheDarkside'' episode ''The Milkman Cometh'' featured a milkman that granted wishes that his customers wrote down and left in their discarded milk bottles. One guy gets addicted to having his wishes granted, and the family soon becomes rich, but his GenreSavvy son begs him to stop before they get screwed over. He refuses, and wishes that they had a second child, only for the milkman to grant it by ''breaking into the house and raping his wife''.

* One Episode of ''TheAdventuresOfShirleyHolmes'' has a teenage girl who was constaltnly harassing the ChildStar boy for some [[ShowWithinAShow unknown series]], with the intent to get him out of the show, so that she could the star instead. The boy actually '''did''' want to quit, but the CorruptCorporateExecutive wouldn't let him. Shirley exposes the executive and helps the boy to nullify his contract, but didn't find any evidence against the girl. The narration then states: "But she did got what she deserved: her own studio contract, with lots of fine print..." Cue the sight of the girl, forced to do a "take 12" of some stupid episode, exhausted, angry, and clearly miserable after just a few days - and earlier it was established that the contracts with this studio have a minimum term of two years. For the girl, those years will be '''very''' long.

* From ''MST3K'':
** The crew parodied Coily in episode 317 (the famous "waffle episode"), with Willy the Waffle, the Wonderful Whimsical Wisecracking Waffle granting Tom's wish for a world without waffles ("Noooooooooo Waffles! * coil spring noise* "). Willy appeared again in 423 to show Tom a world without advertising ("It was all I had, I had to work fast"). After Willy's spiel, Joel and Tom agree that they prefer the world without advertising.

* In ''{{Game of Thrones}}'', Sansa Stark, begs her mother to give her permission to leave Winterfell and marry Prince Joffrey Baratheon, because she wanted to live the privilege life of a Queen and give birth to the future King's children. [[spoiler: Sansa quickly regrets this, after she realized what a monster his is at the end of season 1 and during season 2. He has her father beheaded, despite promising her, he'd show mercy if he admitted to treason. Then during season 2, he mentally and physically tortures her.]]

* LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit had an episode where a borderline retarded man raped an old woman to death ([[HitlerAteSugar he saw it in a porno and wanted to try it, too]]) via a second heart attack. There's no arguement that he did it so much as if he's ''competent'' enough to be charged with him banking on an insanity plea under the belief that an asylum beats prison, but [[OhCrap the look on his face upon entering the ward says it all how much he really lost as the episode closes out.]]
* ''NoelsChristmasPresents'' (which ran 1989-1999, then 2007-2011, with no episode in 1992), and its SpiritualSuccessor ''AllStarChristmasPresents'' play this trope '''entirely differently'''; the wishes are [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming entirely positive]] or [[CrowningMomentOfFunny humorous]], but never the usual case of how this trope plays out in most live-action TV shows. Well, it is a documentary, not a drama. A [[SubvertedTrope subversion]], in that there is nothing supernatural, and that the presenter is (metaphorically) SubbingForSanta.
* There's an episode of TalesFromTheCrypt about a scriptwriter who continuously fantasizes about his hot neighbour being sexually obsessed with him. His creepy landlady gives him a bottle of something to slip into her drink, which he does, and it works too well: she's now continuously badgering him for sex at every moment of the day, until he commits suicide to get away from her. Even that doesn't work because [[spoiler: she throws herself out the window to be with him, and her (now horrifically disfigured ghost)continues to nag him for sex ]].

* In one episode of ''TheMonkees'', one of them finds a Monkey's Paw. They don't realize how dangerous it is until the owner says "I wish I could stop talking about it", only to have the wish granted before he can say the last two words of that sentence.

** The reason for the plot of TheMovie.
--> '''Alex:''' "I wish you and dad had never met!"

* The titular character of MarilynManson's concept album ''Antichrist Superstar'' rises to become the PhysicalGod he always dreamed of being, but crosses the DespairEventHorizon in the process and destroys the earth in a nihilistic rage. The last words of the album are actually "when all of your wishes are granted, many of your dreams will be destroyed" - [[BrokenRecord repeated]] over and over amidst a wall of static.

* Eurydice in ''{{Hadestown}}'' wants to "lie down forever," so she's taken to the underworld.
* The narrator of Rush's song "Xanadu" wishes he could visit the stately pleasure dome of Coleridge's poem and gain immortality by drinking honeydew and the milk of paradise. He succeeds, but finds himself eternally trapped within the dome.
** The song "Carnies" from ClockworkAngels has the protagonist realizing that wishing to get away from his ordinary life wasn't going to go the way he meant it to.
* Mentioned in the ArtOfDying song "Completely;" the lead-in line to the chorus in (both versions) is "watch what you wish for, you know you just might get it..." In the original, there is a line in the chorus about how "everything you want/ain't always what you need..."
* The song "Black Fox" by Heather Dale. Whilst out on a unsucessesful fox-hunt, the master huntsman proclaims "If only the Devil himself come by, we'd run him such a race!". A little black fox then appears, and the huntsmen chase it until it crosses a river... and promtply turns into the devil, whereupon the huntsmen have a collective OhCrap moment and flee, pursued by the (now-laughing) little black fox.

* The trope image comes from ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'', during an storyline where Calvin gets sick.
* Two arcs of FoxTrot relating to one of Jason's money making schemes are a direct result of this trope: The first one related to Jason making his own website, and the second dealt with a greeting card, both times were the result of Roger, his father, ranting about how he would make a lot of money creating a site and at the cost of buying christmas cards, respectively. The second time, Jason wasn't even in the same room as Roger, implying that Roger was talking about to Andy loud enough for Jason to hear it from another room.

* The legend of King Midas (the first part, at least) is a good example. Upon finding the drunken satyr Silenus, a follower of Dionysus, trespassing on his property, Midas treated him hospitably for ten days rather than punishing him. Dionysus offered Midas a reward for his charity, offering him anything he wanted; Midas asked that anything he touched be turned to gold. Although the god warned him that he had made a foolish wish, he still granted it. Though Midas was happy at first, it soon became obvious that he had indeed been foolish. His daughter was quickly [[TakenForGranite turned into a statue]] by this power, and Midas couldn't even touch food without it turning to gold. When faced with starvation, he begged Dionysus to take the gift back. Dionysus did so, but sadly for Midas, this would not be the last time he did something foolish involing his interactions with the gods...

* Stephen Sondheim's ''IntoTheWoods'': Everyone wishes for something at one point - in fact, the beginning prologue song comprised of mostly the lyrics "I wish, more than anything, more than life" - but it typically backfires. Cinderella wishes to go to the Festival but doesn't count on a prince chasing her around the woods. The Baker and his wife wish to have a child but don't intend to also run around the woods trying to get stuff for the Witch. This theme carries through the whole thing. Just when you think everything is resolved, someone whispers [[TemptingFate "I wish..."]], which kicks off the whole [[DarkerAndEdgier second half of the play.]]
* In Shakespeare's ''HenryV'', Henry asks three traitorous nobles what he should do with a drunk who called him a nasty name. The nobles, unaware that Henry knows of their treachery, tell him emphatically that he should show no mercy for this (minor) infraction and punish the drunk harshly. In doing so, they leave themselves no room to ask for mercy when Henry reveals his knowledge of their betrayal. He has them executed.
* Shows up in ''IMarriedAnAngel''.

* In the "Id" story line of ''{{JLA}},'' a group of 6th-dimensional beings release an entity capable of granting wishes... unfortunately, it's a LiteralGenie. It affects the league, splitting them into their superheroic and secret identities, and wreaks havoc (most hilariously when some guy wishes his boss would go to hell). In the end, [[spoiler: Plastic Man's alter-ego]] pulls the league [[IncrediblyLamePun back together,]] comes up with a plan to defeat Id, and saves Earth.

* "Wish You Were Here", a 1953 story from the ECComics horror title ''The Haunt of Fear'', uses a variation of "Literature/TheMonkeysPaw" story: A businessman's wife discovers an enchanted Chinese figurine and wishes for a fortune. Learning that her husband was killed while driving to his lawyer's office (after naming her the beneficiary of a generous life insurance policy) and [[GenreSavvy remembering what happened in "The Monkey's Paw"]], she wishes for him to be brought back to the way he was "just before the accident"; unfortunately, he's still a corpse since his actual death was due to a heart attack. She uses the third and final wish to make him "alive ''now'', alive forever!"...which condemns him to eternal pain and agony, since his dead body had been embalmed. Even her hacking him to tiny bits can't put him out of his misery. (The comic was later adapted for the 1972 movie anthology: ''[[Film/ECComics Tales From The Crypt]]''.)

* In a ComicBook/TransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye sidestory, Trailcutter briefly wishes that he no longer had his signature forcefield before going to sleep as he feels that is the only thing people remember about him. When he awakens, an malfunctioning pulse weapon has frozen everyone else on the ship and taken away his ability to project forcefields. He later learns that his forcefields are what protected him from the inventions effects.

* In FanFic/TheSecondTry, Shinji and Asuka were [[PeggySue sent back in time]] because of an offhanded wish they made one night. They got their wish, but it came with a heavy cost. [[spoiler: They wished that they could do something to allow their 3-year old daughter a normal life; a life where she could have friends. By going back in time they got their chance to make such a world, but it also [[RetGone erased their daughter from existence.]]]] Shinji doesn't take this very well when he learns of it.
* ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3036180/1/When_All_Your_Dreams_Come_True When All Your Dreams Come True]]'', a [[FridgeHorror horrifyingly plausible]] ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'' fanfiction, in which Zuko’s dream of catching the Avatar and being reinstated as his father’s heir comes true…and promptly turns into a scene so nightmarish that he eventually loses himself in increasingly desperate daydreams trying to wish the new reality away.
* ''[[Fanfic/AFutureOfFriendshipAHistoryOfHate A Future of Friendship, A History of Hate]]'': Episode 5 is built on this trope -- Scootaloo, tired of the downsides of being a kid, accepts Miserain's aid in becoming an adult... only to figure out pretty fast that she has ''no idea'' how to be one, getting her into all kinds of trouble, eventually leaving her [[HeroicBSOD completely depressed]]. [[spoiler: Which is [[ManipulativeBastard what Miserain wanted]], as Scootaloo's despair fed the woebeghoul sealed in the [[ArtifactOfDoom Tear of Covet]].]] Once everything is over and done with, Scootaloo learns the episode's {{Aesop}} about waiting to grow up.

* In ''[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/sixswans/stories/twelvewilducks.html The Twelve Wild Ducks]]'', a queen says, "If I only had a daughter as white as snow and as red as blood, I shouldn't care what became of all my sons." A troll witch hears and takes her sons.
* In ''Literature/TheSevenRavens'', the father wishes his sons were ravens for their being so forgetful. (To add to the irony, he was mistaken about why they hadn't done as he said.)
* In ''[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/pentamerone/2myrtle1911.html The Myrtle]]'', a woman [[WonderChild wishes for a child, even a sprig of myrtle]].
* In ''[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/grimms/108hanshedgehog.html Hans the Hedgehog]]'', the father wishes for a son, even a hedgehog.

* There is a fairy tale about a poor couple that rescues an elf and is granted three wishes in return. The wife, being hungry, wishes she had a nice, tasty sausage. Her husband scolds her for wasting a wish on such a mundane thing and blurts out in anger: "I wish that stupid sausage would stick to your nose!" which is exactly what happens next. In the end, they have to use the third wish to get the sausage off the poor woman's face and have thus wasted all three of them.

* [[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/russian/oldpetersrussiantales/princeivan.html Prince Ivan, the Witch Baby, and the Little Sister of the Sun]] Your son does not talk. Wish for any child at all, because things can't be worse, and you get [[WitchSpecies a witch child]] born with her iron teeth who eats you up.

* In ''WreckItRalph'', the Nicelanders challenge Ralph that if he can get a medal, he can get the keys to the penthouse. [[spoiler: Ralph does manage to get a medal, but because of his and Fix-It Felix's (who went to find Ralph) absence, ''Fix-it Felix Jr.'' has already been declared out of order and will be unplugged soon. As promised, Ralph gets the key to the penthouse but it is now abandoned.]]
* ''ToyStory3'' has the main characters wishing early on that they would get played with again. When they do, it's at a day care where they happen to be assigned to toddlers who handle them too roughly. (All the main characters are toys meant for older kids than toddlers.) [[spoiler:(And when Buzz Lightyear tries to negotiate with Lotso, the toy in charge of all the other toys, to get himself and the rest of the main characters put into the room with the older kids, Buzz and eventually the other toys find out that Lotso [[PrisonEpisode runs the place like a prison]].)]] [[note]](On a sidenote, ''ToyStory3'' might actually double as a meta-example on top of that; all series have some fans who wish the series would explore DarkerAndEdgier themes, but before the third installment came out, discussions of this idea had more of a "wouldn't this be interesting" prevailing tone, while after it came out discussions of the dark themes that actually ''were'' involved ranged from {{Running Gag}}s about how dark the movie was to [[http://www.momlogic.com/2010/06/toy_story_3_too_dark_for_little_kids.php serious concerns about whether or not the movie was too dark for children]].)[[/note]]

* This is the main plot of the TomHanks film ''Film/{{Big}}''.
* Ditto for the JenniferGarner movie ''13 Going on 30'', which is the same premise [[RecycledInSpace with a girl]].
* In ''SeventeenAgain'', Mike O'Donnell wishes that he could go back in time to change his life. Courtesy of a [[SwirlyEnergyThingy whirlpool]], he does. It's not quite what he thought it would be.

** Played for laughs in the second movie ''Film/TempleOfDoom'', where Indy, after having stopped a mining cart with his foot and resulting in his boot smoking, cries out "Water! Water!". Mere seconds later...

* ''TheIncredibleMrLimpet.'': Ultimately the trope is subverted, as it turns out he really is happier as a fish.

* In ''FreakyFriday'', the heroine and her mother both wish to be each other "just for one day". Since they make the wish at the same time, this being Hollywood, it happens. HilarityEnsues.

* In ''BernardAndTheGenie'', the Genie warns Bernard "Use the words 'I wish' with the caution you used to reserve for the words 'Please castrate me.'"

* The plot of the Grade-Z horror film ''{{Hobgoblins}}''.

* In ''DeadFriend'' (aka ''The Ghost'') [[spoiler: Su-in, completely by accident, got what she wished for - She ''becomes'' Ji-won.]] Unfortunately for her, there were some [[GhostlyGoals nasty consequences.]]

* TheMovie of ''WizardsOfWaverlyPlace'' had it too. Alex yells at her mother when the latter grounds the former, ultimately wishing that her parents never met. At all. And because she is holding the wand, the wish that Alex unintentionally makes comes true. Ironic that she'd wish that on vacation in the one place where her parents first met.
* In ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'', Mike challenges Pearl Forrester to a game of chance and ends up winning. He asks for ''{{Hamlet}}''. Boy, ''does she'' give him ''Hamlet''!

* In ''Film/InTime''. Sylvia was bored of her sterile, rich life and wanted a life of adventure. Then, Will kidnaps her and she nearly dies a few times. After getting over the initial shock, she falls for him and joins him in his quest.

* The old pilgrim in the beginning of ''Film/TheSwordOfDoom'' ''was'' praying for death, but he probably wasn't asking for it in the form of Ryunosuke cutting him down right then & there.
* In "Breaking the Waves" every time any character prays, this happens, along with lots of [[FromBadtoWorse it got worse]]

* In the first book of ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'', Tobias states he's all right with his red-tailed hawk morph and ''doesn't want to be anything else''. Consequently, the end of that episode (and the whole rest of the series) sees him trapped in that shape.

* In Creator/HansChristianAndersen's ''The Galoshes of Fortune'', the titular shoes grant the wishes of whoever is wearing them. This usually ends badly, as the characters are unaware of their power. For example, the Councilor of Justice held the view that in the time of King Hans, around 1500, everything was better; when the galoshes transport him to that age, he finds out that it was actually much worse.
* The EdgarAllanPoe story ''Never Bet the Devil Your Head'' is an odd case of this. A man tells a story of a friend who says he'd "bet the devil his head" that he could perform a particular trick; out of nowhere, [[LouisCypher a mystery man]] shows up eager to take him up on his bet, and sure enough, he manages to decapitate himself and the man runs off with his prize.
* In ''Wedding Shirts'', a ballad by [[http://new.radio.cz/en/article/58317 Karel Jaromír Erben]], a woman makes the following wish in a prayer: "O Mary, full of power / Oh, help me at this hour / Bring my beloved home / Lord knows where he does roam / Bring him, I reck not how / Or finish my life now." You know what followed ... Yes, her beloved returned to her from the grave, almost leading to the second part of the wish coming true as well.

* W.W. Jacobs' classic short story "Literature/TheMonkeysPaw" concerns a married couple who receive the title item as a gift from a friend who served in the British Army in India. The paw grants its owner ThreeWishes, and the husband uses the first of these to wish for 200 pounds; the couple subsequently learns that their grown son was killed after falling into the machinery at the factory where he worked, and they are offered £200 as compensation from the employers. The wife then begs the husband to wish for the son to be brought back to life; after he does so (with great reluctance), they hear a steady knocking on their door. As the overjoyed wife runs to unlock and open the door, the husband realizes to his horror that the son will have come back [[CameBackWrong in his mutilated state]], and quickly uses the third wish; when the wife finally gets the door open, there's nobody there, implying that the third wish was for the son to be returned to the grave.

* Literature/LordOfTheRings:

** Also part of the backstory of the Nazgul: they were once mighty, arrogant Kings of Men who desired power and long life. So Sauron gave them magic rings. Now they are immortal...undead slaves to Sauron's will.
* In ''The Literature/ChroniclesofThomasCovenant: The Land'', drinking the Blood of the Earth gives the power to command absolutely anything to happen, but limited human minds simply cannot know all consequences of a sudden change to reality. So it's usually safest not to use it.

* Non-supernatural example: In Margaret Atwood's ''TheHandmaidsTale'', the character of Serena Joy is a former conservative televangelist who preached that women belonged in the home and helped to support the overthrow of the United States by the theocratic Republic of Gilead; by the time of the novel, she has been stripped of her public role, reduced to the role of subjugated housewife, and forced to be present while another woman - the Handmaid of the title - has sex with her husband every month. As Atwood wryly notes, "How furious she must be, now that she's been taken at her word."
* Along the same lines as ''TheHandmaidsTale'', Sinclair Lewis's ''It Can't Happen Here'' details the takeover of the U.S. government by a fascistic regime led by a demagogue named Buzz Windrip. Some characters who initially support Windrip's regime wind up becoming imprisoned or executed by it.

* A ''{{Goosebumps}}'' book with this very title has this as its premise, with the term ''ResetButton'' loosely applied.
* ''ASongOfIceAndFire'':

* One of the characters in "[[TheEschatonSeries Singularity Sky]]" by Charles Stross receives three wishes. His first wish is to be young again; he becomes eight years old. Not quite what he had in mind, but as certain people sought to kill him, he was not going to complain. His second wish is for some "real friends"; he gets some talking animals. His third wish is for adventure. Bad idea.
* A running theme in the ''Tiffany Aching'' series (the young adult ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' books):

* Common in ''JonathanStrangeAndMrNorrell'', especially when fairies are involved. The [[TheFairFolk Gentleman with the Thistledown Hair]] even invokes this, as one of his plans for defeating Jonathan Strange is to appear to him and offer him whatever he wants, on the basis that it's bound to cause him trouble. That plan rather backfired when Strange doesn't ask for infinite gold, the most beautiful woman in the world or something distracting and troublesome like that, but instead asks for various lost pieces of information about magic The Gentleman doesn't want him to know, leaving him flustered and trying to convince him to pick something else.
* Serwe's backstory in ''SecondApocalypse'' has a lot to do with this trope. Her prayers to gods come true several times but not in a way she wants.

* In Melissa Marr's ''[[WickedLovely Ink Exchange]]'' Leslie wishes for 'no more fear and pain' when she gets her tattoo...she ends up being used as a conduit by some very [[DarkerAndEdgier dark]] [[TheFairFolk faeries]] with a HorrorHunger for negative emotions, unable to feel anything for more than a few seconds and barely lucid.

* In Creator/LordDunsany's ''Literature/TheKingOfElflandsDaughter'', the commoners want a magical lord. This means the lord has to send his son after the title character for a bride and causes all the subsequent problems.

* In Edward Everett Hale's short story "[[http://www.bartleby.com/ebook/adobe/3106.pdf The Man Without a Country]]", Philip Nolan, as a young man enamored with Aaron Burr, cries out at his court-martial, "Damn the United States! I wish I may never hear of the United States again!" The court grants him his wish by sentencing him to [[FlyingDutchman forever live on ships sailing away from the United States]] and be forbidden from ever hearing or reading anything about the United States ever again. He comes to really and truly regret his wish, and makes sure to tell the narrator not to make the same mistake he did.
* At the end of L. Jagi Lamplighter's ''[[ProsperosDaughter Prospero In Hell]]'', Miranda reflects on how she had wished to have a common enemy for her family to unite against. She got one. (It's the second in a trilogy.)

* In TheObsidianTrilogy and TheEnduringFlameTrilogy Wildmages can make wishes to the Wildmagic which will grant it for a price which varies depending on the difficulty of the wish. Since the magic will grant you what you ask for, not what you want, Wildmages are warned to think carefully what they really want/desire in order to not waste time and energy paying off a wasted wish, and to minimize the cost of any necessary wishes.

* ''HalfUponATime'' gives us a great moment right from the beginning. Jack, whose father was Jack from Literature/JackAndTheBeanstalk, is arguing with his grandfather about Jack's lack of ambition.

* ''CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'': Seemingly every child on planet wanted to get the Golden Ticket, enabling one to visit Willy Wonka's factory. For four out of five children who did found it (and of those four, at least three actively sought the ticket) the visit turned to a horrible experience. This is subverted with TheHero, who [[spoiler: now got the factory]].

* In ''TheABCMurders'', HerculePoirot says his ideal mystery would be murder at a bridge game, where everyone was so intent upon the game that noone noticed when one of them, the dummy that round, got up and killed the host. A few books later, he faces exactly that.

* In ''{{Literature/Airframe}}'' after a strange incident involving a plane, the manufacturer takes it up to recreate it, and a reporter that's been following them demands to go along. She winds up regretting it.

* As John Galt explains towards the end of ''AtlasShrugged'', society has claimed for decades that wealthy businessmen, executives, and entrepreneurs are evil villains who harm, exploit, and enslave others. Well, he has made them all vanish, liberating society of their evil... so what does anyone have to complain about?
* "Be Careful What You Wish For" by Stef already states it in the title. Young girl Gwen is ''bored'' and wishes for something to do. She is sent on a uest to save Idlebury kingdom... from itself.

** A case of the former in ''Twisted Metal: Head-On'' is when the driver of Spectre, Chuckie Floop, wished for a lot of money and was then buried alive underneath a massive pile of cash. In Warthog's ending for ''Twisted Metal 2'', Calypso delivers a sickeningly brilliant example of the latter when he grants the 105-year-old Captain Rogers' wish for a youthful body ... [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-iCbYgWQfw sans the head to match]].

** The end of the episode ensures that Flanders' wishes don't backfire (that we get to see). Indeed, Kang and Kodos imply that his first wish, to rid the world of alien invaders, will backfire because humans will develop "[[BiggerStick bigger boards, with bigger nails, until they build a board with a nail it in so large, it will destroy them all!]]"

* When Lena, a young German girl, moved out from her Parents' house at 18 (this was in 2007), they were ''not happy'' about it and had repeatedly tried to convince her to come back. Then Lena got caught in the 2010 Love Parade Disaster. Since then, she returned to her parent's house - and she refuses to leave and constantly clings to her parents.

** Natalie Portman did something similar and got the black corset number she wore in ''AttackOfTheClones''.

* Wall Street got its wish when Elizabeth Warren was blocked from taking the top spot at her brainchild the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. After the notoriously outspoken consumer advocate wasn't even nominated - because the President knew he could never get her confirmed in the Senate - Warren went back to Massachusetts and launched her campaign against incumbent Senator Scott Brown. She won the election by an eight-point landslide, Wall Street lost its favorite Senator, and ''Senator'' Elizabeth Warren, who has no intention of stopping her crusade any time soon, is now not only part of the very body that wanted to send her back to her ivory tower, but (thanks to John Kerry's promotion) Massachussetts' senior Senator ''and'' a member of the Senate Banking Committee -- which is where Wall Street absolutely ''did not'' want her. Oooops!

* In ''Anime/HimitsuNoAkko-chan'', (the original version from 1969), the titular heroine, Akko-chan, upon meeting a deaf-mute kid, asks her magic mirror to turn her into a deaf-mute version of herself, reasoning that, after her brush with disability, she'll be able to restore herself with a second wish. However, since the mirror works only by clearly enunciated utterances, and since it was [[LiteralGenie enough literal to strip Akko-chan of the ability to speak at all]], the unfortunate wishee finds herself deaf, voiceless and cut off of her power source. She gets better later, though, as the ResetButton simply presses itself after imparting a much needed {{Aesop}}.

* Making wishes under the old sakura tree in ''DaCapo'' can have major consequences. For some it's even worse though when those wishes get reverted.

* The scientists in ''{{Utawarerumono}}'' wanted to live forever. Unfortunately [[spoiler:Iceman was a god and they just REALLY pissed him off, so he gave them all bodies that would be immortal [[AndIMustScream by turning them all into red jelly.]]]]
* In ''[[DGrayMan D.Gray-Man]]'', the unlucky Miranda Lotto loses her one hundredth job. She says: "Day after day, things always go wrong for me. I wish tomorrow would never come." What's the problem? Her Innocence-superpowered clock hears it, and it grants her wish. The whole town where she lives gets stuck in October 9th for more than a month.
* Quite a few ''FrankenFran'' stories end this way. One, for example, has a modern Elizabeth Bathory asking for eternal youth and eternal life. Fran gave her what she wants by turning all of her cells into the one type of cell that isn't programmed to die: [[spoiler:[[AndIMustScream Cancer Cells]].]]

** Another key example is in Anime/DragonBallGT, when Pilaf, having summoned the Black Star Dragon, gets distracted by Goku. Pilaf, frustrated at Goku's supposed thwarting of his plan, absentmindedly wishes that Goku was a child again. The Dragon grants his wish.

* Zelgadis of ''{{Slayers}}'' wishes to be strong. And then he gets his wish. And it [[CursedWithAwesome sucks]].

* ''FushigiYuugi'' Especially in the manga, Miaka wishes to be rid of her problems with school and her [[EducationMama mother]], and that there was a god she could pray to. Well, in a way, she gets her wish: she is in an alternate dimension where there ''is'' no school, and she gets to be the [[ChosenOne priestess]] to a god in this dimension. But, it's not all roses. She's in a CastFullOfPrettyBoys, but she has VirginPower. She is constantly getting the DistressBall, too. Oh, and then there's that whole thing about the Beast God [[VirginSacrifice consuming his priestess' body and soul]] as she makes her wishes.
* In ''NightmareInspector'', Hiruko often lets the dreamer's wishes be fulfilled. Whether they were actually beneficial to the dreamer is a different question ...

* This is a very important theme in ''TenshiNiNarumon'' [[spoiler: where the strength of one of the main characters' wish almost erases him and other two individuals from existence]].

* In ''{{Himitsu no Akko-chan}}'', (the original version from 1969), the titular heroine, Akko-chan, upon meeting a deaf-mute kid, asks her magic mirror to turn her into a deaf-mute version of herself, reasoning that, after her brush with disability, she'll be able to restore herself with a second wish. However, since the mirror works only by clearly enunciated utterances, and since it was [[LiteralGenie enough literal to strip Akko-chan of the ability to speak at all]], the unfortunate wishee finds herself deaf, voiceless and cut off of her power source. She gets better later, though, as the ResetButton simply presses itself after imparting a much needed {{Aesop}}.
* ''TokyoMagnitude8'' begins with the narrator saying she hates Tokyo and wishes it would just break, the whole city. Cue the titular earthquake.
* In ''PrettyCureAllStars DX 3'', [[SuitePrecure Hibiki]] wishes Hummy would disappear after she crashes a fashion show featuring [[HeartcatchPrecure Tsubomi, Erika, Itsuki and Yuri]]. [[spoiler:At the end of the movie, [[DownerEnding she does - along with the rest of the Precure's mascots.]] They come back, though.]]

* Up against Olegmon, one of the Death Generals in DigimonXrosWars, when Sutyr, one of his shoulder devils, taunts the team by suggesting he'll grant a wish, Kiriha defiantly shouts that the only wish he has is to defeat Olegmon, who interprets that as a world without Olegmon. Sutyr grants this wish by ejecting Kiriha and his Digimon clear across the world.

* In ''FateZero'' Kiritsugu wants the Holy Grail to grant world peace, but when he finally has the chance to make his wish the corrupted Grail explains how it intends to grant it: by ''killing off all of mankind but Kiritsugu and his daughter'', because Humans would always fight. Then it's subverted when Kiritsugu [[ScrewDestiny destroys the Grail]].

** Ensnaring wronged people with BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor is the whole modus operandi of vengeance demons in Buffy. They find somebody who's been wronged, get them to make a wish, and then make the wish come true in a gruesome manner that the wisher never intended.

* The titular character of MarilynManson's concept album ''Antichrist Superstar'' rises to become the PhysicalGod he always dreamed of being, but crosses the DespairEventHorizon in the process and destroys the earth in a nihilistic rage. The last words of the album are actually "[[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor when all of your wishes are granted, many of your dreams will be destroyed]]" - [[BrokenRecord repeated]] over and over amidst a wall of static.

** The {{Precursors}} offer to turn Jak into one of them as thanks for his services. All of a sudden [[AristocratsAreEvil Count Veger]] arrives with a gun demanding that HE be turned into one instead. The Precursor says "BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor" and does something to Veger. Shortly afterwards it's revealed that the EnergyBeing they were talking to was just a hologram and that the Precursors... [[spoiler:are ottsels.]] Cue KarmicTransformation when Veger realizes the implications of this.
** Later, Daxter, finally in peace with his ottsel appearance, asks for a set of pants. His girlfriend then says that those pants are so cute, she wished she had a pair of them herself. Cue the precursors' "BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor" a second time, and the girl getting a pair of pants just like that... and turned into an ottsel so she could fit into them.

* In TheSecondTry, Shinji and Asuka were [[PeggySue sent back in time]] because of an offhanded wish they made one night. They got their wish, but it came with a heavy cost. [[spoiler: They wished that they could do something to allow their 3-year old daughter a normal life; a life where she could have friends. By going back in time they got their chance to make such a world, but it also [[RetGone erased their daughter from existence.]]]] Shinji doesn't take this very well when he learns of it.

* This could apply to any kids who wish to get out of school by being sick. Most don't get their wish, but the ones who do, realize that getting out of school by being sick requires that you, well, ''be sick'', as in "feeling horrible enough that you spend your days off in ''bed'' and it becomes utterly boring."

*** In the tie-in novel "Behind Enemy Lines" Ro Laren, after seeing her home devastated by the Dominion, swears to fight until Cardassia is equally devastated. In the later book, she reflects on her previous wish and how horrified she is now of Cardassia's plight.

However, in some cases, it can go ''right'' for the character, if the writer wants to play PetTheDog with a character or group of them, and the phrase is used [[{{Irony}} ironically]].

-->'''Brother:''' We wanted to live forever, [[FateWorseThanDeath so the Doctor made sure that we did.]]

* A short story ''The Dumpster''. Sick of your asocial family?, The dumpster will replace it with copies that behave perfectly, '''but''': 1) They will be creepy in their own way, and, most important 2)YOU are now held to the same high standards - slack off and the dumpster will replace you with a perfect copy as well.

* ''InDeath'': Eve is doing paperwork, which she hates, at the beginning of ''New York To Dallas''. She wishes that there was some murderer out there for her to go get. She gets it in the form of Isaac [=McQueen=], a rapist, pedophile, the first murderer she took down while she was in uniform, and is out for {{Revenge}} against Eve. It goes FromBadToWorse when Isaac goes to Dallas, the place where she killed her father in self-defense at 8 years old. Paperwork suddenly looks very good right about now.
* In "TheObsidianTrilogy" and "TheEnduringFlameTrilogy" Wildmages can make wishes to the Wildmagic which will grant it for a price which varies depending on the difficulty of the wish. Since the magic will grant you what you ask for, not what you want, Wildmages are warned to think carefully what they really want/desire in order to not waste time and energy paying off a wasted wish, and to minimize the cost of any necessary wishes.

* Analyzed in ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica''. [[DealWithTheDevil Kyubey]] grants wishes in exchange for the wishee becoming a MagicalGirl and fighting monsters for him. The problems that arise from the granting of the wish aren't exactly because of the wish itself, or from Kyubey - while he's not exactly trustworthy, he has no incentive to screw with peoples' wishes: when he says he can grant ''any'' wish, he ''means'' it, and he has no reason to influence what a Magical Girl wishes for, or to decide for her what she think fighting Witches for the rest of her life is worth. The problem is ''the person making the wish is almost never honest about what they really wanted''. Veteran Magical Girls repeatedly warn potential ones against the perils of a selfless wish, and that's part of what makes it so tragic: [[spoiler:there ''are no'' selfless wishes. Every selfless wish has a selfish motive behind it, and seeing the chance for that selfish desire slipping away with the rising happiness of someone else sends a Magical Girl deeper into despair... which is what Kyubey [[TheChessmaster wants]]. The fact that the Incubators only contract with willing girls and offer no-strings-attached wishes is their idea of equal payment for what the Magical Girls inevitably have to suffer in the end.]]

* Julian Priest (DavidBowie), the MadArtist HorrorHost of the second season of the anthology ''The Hunger'', cites this trope by name as a way of summing up the events of his debut episode "Sanctuary", though the desire and its granting are unusual. [[spoiler: Julian hated death and desired artistic immortality, and realized he could achieve it by making ''his suicide'' a piece of performance art. Now he's a lonely ghost, haunting the abandoned prison that was his home -- perhaps Death's punishment for his defiance.]]

* In "Breaking the Waves" every time any chacter prays, this happens, along with lots of [[FromBadtoWorse it got worse]]

* Goku from ''{{Saiyuki}}'' thinks it would be okay if he died. WAIT HE DIDN'T MEAN THIS SECOND!

* In the "Id" story line of ''JLA,'' a group of 6th-dimensional beings release an entity capable of granting wishes... unfortunately, it's a LiteralGenie. It affects the league, splitting them into their superheroic and secret identities, and wreaks havoc (most hilariously when some guy wishes his boss would go to hell). In the end, [[spoiler: Plastic Man's alter-ego]] pulls the league [[IncrediblyLamePun back together,]] comes up with a plan to defeat Id, and saves Earth.

* In the first book of ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'', Tobias states he's alright with his red-tailed hawk morph and ''doesn't want to be anything else''. Consequently, the end of that episode (and the whole rest of the series) sees him trapped that shape.

* Definitely the instance that most people think of in the ''Manga/DragonBall'' franchise is when [[BigBad Perfect Cell]], wanting to get a good fight before he destroys the Earth, hears from Gohan who, not wanting to fight, will let loose and kill him if Cell pushes him too hard. Cell, [[BloodKnight being Cell]], goes ahead with that anyways, pulling some heavy KickTheDog moments by nearly killing the rest of the cast and [[TearJerker killing Android 16]], and which pushes Gohan to go Super Saiyan 2 and [[NoHoldsBarredBeatDown beat Cell half to death]] and drive him to VillainousBreakdown. Gohan even invokes the whole trope by pointing to Cell that him letting loose is what Cell wanted in the first place.

** Another key example is in DragonBallGT, when Pilaf, having summoned the Black Star Dragon, gets distracted by Goku. Pilaf, frustrated at Goku's supposed thwarting of his plan, absentmindedly wishes that Goku was a child again. The Dragon grants his wish.

** In yet another episode, "Dogmother 2," a wish-granting fairy loses her notes, remembering only the address, so she goes to Jon's house and puts it under a spell that grants any inhabitant any statement that begins with "I wish." It's Jon luck that he happens to sing, "I Wish I Were in Dixieland" in the shower that day.

** In another episode Garfield gets a fairy godfather who grants him three wishes. The first wish is for lasagna, which the godfather steals from a nearby chef. The chef immediately suspects Garfield and takes it back. Then Garfield wishes for money to buy lasagna with. The godfather zaps in money from a bank and Garfield is promptly thrown in jail.

* ''Interstate 60'': "Now one young couple wished to be married and live happily ever after. So I blew up their car at the church on the way to the honeymoon. Another guy he wanted great, perfect sex every day with his choice of gorgeous women - no pregnancies. So everyday he gets a Fed Ex delivery of a skin magazine and a box of tissues."

* There's an episode of TalesFromTheCrypt about a scriptwriter who continuously fantasizes about his hot neighbour being sexually obsessed with him. His creepy landlady gives him a bottle of something to slip into her drink, which he does, and it works too well: she's now continuously badgering him for sex at every moment of the day, until he commits suicide to get away from her. Even that doesn't work because [[spoiler: she throws herself out the window to be with him, and her (now horrifically disfigured ghost)continues to nag him for sex ]]

* ''StationeryVoyagers'' plays with this quite a bit.
** Pextel wanted to be an astronaut. He [[UnwillingRoboticisation became a robot]] astronaut, but had to fight evil ''against his job description''. He also wanted to have an intelligent discussion with his father. [[spoiler: And Huli dies shortly thereafter.]] He wanted his mother to believe in him. [[DefiedTrope Too bad]]! She [[FantasticRacism doesn't trust]] Mechies.
** Rhodney wanted to live a life that didn't feel wasted. He ends up in a relationship that feels like a ShaggyDogStory anyway.
** Marlack wanted to settle a score with the Yehtzig pirate who raped his sister. He nearly gets himself killed trying.
** Pinkella wanted her family to come to their senses and start behaving themselves again. [[spoiler: They died defying her wishes, [[ShootTheShaggyDog to no benefit of theirs]].]]
** Neone wanted to save her father from Pentacko. [[EvilLaugh Ha ha ha]] [[ShootTheShaggyDog ha ha!!!...]]
** Consto wanted a shot at [[AGodAmI becoming a god]]. Too bad those Definition Essentials got in the way...all he can hope for is to become [[TheStarscream Preamble]]...who in the end, never really does completely break free from his servitude to [[TheAntichrist Astrabolo]].