History Main / CorrectionBait

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* In ''ComicBook/{{Shazam}}'', this is how [[EvilCounterpart Black Adam]] was defeated in his first appearance: [[LovableRogue Uncle Dudley]] kept purposefully misspeaking [[TheChooserOfTheOne Shazam]]'s name, until an exasperated Black Adam corrected him -- [[ByThePowerOfGrayskull and thus turned back into his powerless mortal form]], which (given that he had been in his empowered form for 5,000+ years) quickly succumbed to RapidAging.

* ''ComicStrip/BeetleBailey'' featured the same gag, with a misspelled "Dougnuts." After Beetle and Sarge leave with a bag of doughnuts/donuts (having stopped to report the error), the proprietor comments that the missing h brings in ever more business.

* In ''Film/NowYouSeeMe'', Daniel tries to mimic Merritt's mentalism and makes a comically bad attempt at "reading" their boss. Tressler is quick to tell him how off his guesses are -- [[spoiler:too bad he's being mined for his bank account security questions.]]

* Literature/SherlockHolmes has used this to good effect. In ''The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle'', he's tracking the origins of a Christmas goose which was found to be carrying a stolen gem. He insists to a dealer that the goose was farm-raised -- which he knows almost certainly isn't true -- and under the guise of a bet gets the man to prove him "wrong" by showing him the ledgers telling exactly where in the city the goose came from. Holmes later says he could have offered to pay the man a hundred times the wager and not been able to buy the information.

--->'''Sheldon:''' [After drawing Charlie Brown around the curlicue] Nice try, Blockheads.

** In the episode "The Bye-Bye Sky High I.Q. Murder Case", Columbo constructs the contraption the killer used to make it sound like the murder happened while he was outside the room. However, Columbo deliberately [[spoiler: put an error into the contraption, knowing the murderer [[{{Pride}} wouldn't be able to resist correcting it]]. The killer is stunned at what he just did and [[WorthyOpponent impressed that Columbo outsmarted him]].]]
* In one episode of ''Series/OpenAllHours'', Arkwright put up a sign with deliberately bad grammar in the hopes that people would come into the shop to correct it.
* In one episode of ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'', the title character gets a lot of information out of the victim's wife very quickly by voicing several incorrect assumptions about her husband. He explains to John that, while people are often reluctant to answer questions, they are almost always eager to correct a mistake.
* ''Series/HogansHeroes'' had this as a way Hogan got information, he would say the wrong thing and be corrected with the right information, then change subjects before it was noticed. It was even lampshaded in one episode when a "German citizen" giving away classified SS orders turned out to be an Allied agent.
-->'''Spy:''' Are you sure you've wormed enough information out of me, Colonel Hogan?

* ''Series/GilmoreGirls:'' A variant, since it involves an opinion, but in one episode Kirk is trying not to break character as a medieval-era waiter; Lorelai compares him to one of the BritishRoyalGuards from ''Series/ILoveLucy'' and comments that the European episodes were the best in the series. Kirk replies that the Hollywood episodes were better.
* In the ''Series/{{Matlock}}'' episode "The Stripper", Matlock is interviewing a witness and deliberately botches a joke he heard, [[spoiler: prompting the witnesses' other personality, that comedian, to correct him and expose 'herself'.]]
* In one episode of the ''Series/TheOfficeUS'', Dwight goes on a tear about "time theft", and insists that he never talks about anything non-work-related in the office. Jim proceeds to needle him by giving a ludicrously incorrect description of ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'', causing Dwight to visibly struggle to keep from correcting him.
* Done in ''Series/CriminalMinds''; the victims were two whole families, and when the suspected SerialKiller was brought in but refused to admit the crimes, the photo of the boy of the second family was placed under the heading of the first. When the suspect corrects this, [[INeverSaidItWasPoison the results are obvious.]]
* Done by Jane in one episode of ''Series/TheMentalist'' involving the case of a woman who was murdered while searching for the man who stabbed her father to death. Jane thinks he knows who did it, but the suspect claims he never met the victim and Jane has no proof otherwise; however, the man is known for compulsively correcting people, so Jane tests him by intentionally getting a detail wrong while discussing the father's case in front of the suspect (he states that the father was stabbed 14 times, when the real number was 18). Sure enough, the suspect reflexively corrects him, thus revealing that he ''had'' met the victim and talked with her before her death. Since the only reason he'd lie about that is if he had something to hide, this gives the CBI reason to arrest and question him.

* In the ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'' episode "Funeral", Malcolm tries getting out of going to the title event so that he can go on a date by claiming he has to write an essay on ''Literature/ATaleOfTwoCities'', which he hasn't started reading yet. However, Lois asks if that's the book with Jean Valjean, and ignores Malcolm insisting that she's thinking of ''Literature/LesMiserables'' by adding that Valjean ends the book by saying "It is a far, far better thing that I do than I have ever done before." Malcolm falls for the bait by angrily declaring that Sydney Carton said that line - revealing that he ''has'' read the book.
* ''Series/BeingHumanUK'': During the second series George Sands starts teaching an English As Foreign Language class. After one lesson he goes into the bathroom and finds one of his students has written "Mr. Sands Suck Cocks" on the mirror. George is so annoyed at the grammatical error that he whips out a pen to change it to "Sucks"...which is the exact moment the headmaster walks in.

* In the third case of ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyTrialsAndTribulations'', Phoenix presents [[spoiler:a bottle that contained the victim's ear medicine]] and claims that [[spoiler:it's the bottle containing the poison that was used to commit the murder]]. The witness currently on the stand corrects him, saying that [[spoiler:this isn't what the poison bottle looked like]], something [[INeverSaidItWasPoison he wouldn't have known unless he was the one who committed the murder.]]
* Late in ''VideoGame/Portal2'', Wheatley [[spoiler:hooked up into [=GlaDOS=]' body in control of the testing facility]] attempts to provide the player the solution to the puzzle, [[NoFairCheating and ends up receiving a nasty shock]]. Once the player finishes the test, [=GlaDOS=] cheerily relays that all they had to do was push a lever. Wheatley tries to correct her (it was actually a button), and gets zapped again for it. [[EvilIsPetty GlaDOS has a petty chuckle over this.]]

* A ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' comic shows [[http://xkcd.com/326/ Cueball baiting a]] GrammarNazi into making a false correction. [[note]]Most people are unfamiliar with the uncommon use of "effect" as a verb, which means to "bring about".[[/note]]

* In the Western arc of ''Webcomic/ArthurKingOfTimeAndSpace'', the sign for the Glatisant Saloon says "Salooon" with three "o"s. People come in to point this out to Pellinore, and he says he'll have to fix that, but while they're here...
* In [[https://www.somethingpositive.net/sp06202013.shtml this]] ''Webcomic/SomethingPositive,'' Rory is reading ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}},'' but [[ObfuscatingStupidity not wanting to raise his parents' expectations of him]], tells Davan that he's just doodling pictures in it. Davan tricks him by mentioning [[TheIgor Igor]], whom Rory notes [[AdaptationDisplacement isn't in the book]].

* In every version of Superman, [[RealityWarper Mr. Mxyzptlk]] can be defeated only by tricking him into saying, spelling, or otherwise indicating his own name backwards ("Kltpzyxm"). In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries,'' Superman (as Clark Kent) defeats him by casually telling him he can't fight him until he finishes proofreading the article he's just written. Mxyzptlk, impatient and annoyed at not being taken seriously, quickly proofreads it for him, crossing out his mistakes. The crossed-out letters spell out ''Kltpzyxm'' and he vanishes before he realizes what he's done. In the same episode, Superman gets him by deliberately mispronouncing ''Kltpzyxm'', prompting Mxyzptlk to correct him by saying it correctly.
** In an earlier cartoon, Superman claims he'll spell Mr. Mxyzptlk's name backwards in fireworks, and the sight will force Mr. Mxyzptlk to say it. He misspells it, and Mr. Mxyzptlk corrects him, saying his name backward in the process.
* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain'' had Brain filing a lawsuit, claiming to have been "transformed into" a mouse (he had used his robotic suit to pass as human earlier in the episode). The opposing lawyer pointed out that mice were not intelligent, and Brain, whose lawsuit was going poorly already and was starting to panic, tried to pretend that he was an idiot. The lawyer then threw a bunch of false statements at him, and Brain obviously struggled (and ultimately failed) to stop himself from blurting out corrections.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'' episode "The Power of Shazam!", Batman defeats Black Adam with a variant of the trick listed above under "Comic Books".
* In [=DePatie=]-Freleng's ''Inspector'' series, whenever Sgt. Deux Deux replies "Si" (as he's obviously of Spanish descent), the Inspector (who is French) chides him, saying "Don't say 'si'...say 'oui.'"
* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'': The key to turning the XylophoneGag on someone: purposely play a couple of wrong, discordant notes, missing the key that will set off the [[StuffBlowingUp booby-trapped instrument]], and the one behind the trap will get fed up with your errors, shove you aside, and play the song properly, blowing themselves sky-high.
* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' has DW starting a neighborhood science class where she teaches [[LittleKnownFacts blatantly wrong facts]], such as that [=H2O=] stands for "Hose + Oxygen", hence why water comes out of the hose. Arthur gets so fed up with it that he takes her to the science museum to teach her the proper facts, [[spoiler:where she reveals she had been getting them deliberately wrong so Arthur would take her to the museum, when previously he claimed he never would.]]

* In ''ComicStrip/{{Blondie}}'', Dagwood once noticed a bakery with a misspelled hand-lettered sign advertising something. He went in to correct it, and came out with food. The bakery owner indicated that he had intentionally done it, and it was bringing in a bunch of business.

* In ''Manga/DrStone'', Senku needs knowledge of glassblowing, which has been lost for 3700 years. So he gets his friends to tie up the craftsman Kaseki and forces him to watch his failed attempts at glassblowing. Soon enough, Kaseki is infuriated enough to burst free from his ropes and show Senku how it's done... even though up until now, he had no idea what glass even ''was'' (even though he doesn't know precisely what glass is, he has enough general knowledge of crafting that can transfer over to glassblowing).

** Lieutenant Columbo plays this game on Paul Galesko who murdered his wife and an associate exconvict "fall-guy" to make it look like a kidnapping-murder. By mirroring a photo and playing it off as "proof" that the murder took place at a different time (due to the analog clock being mirrored). Paul gets upset, loses his sense of avoiding self-incrimination, and impulsively reaches [[spoiler: for the camera he used to show Columbo where the originals are. But how would he know which camera to pick unless he took the photos himself?]]

* The first episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Dilbert}}'' has the title character taking a shower that uses voice commands to adjust the temperature. It's only calibrated to answer to his own voice, but Dogbert manages to mess with him by fudging some numbers. First he brings up how Dilbert had training wheels until he was 17, which Dilbert corrects to 14, prompting the shower to turn freezing cold. Then Dogbert remarks that the shower's computer voice reminds him of the [=AI=] from "''[[Film/TwoThousandAndOneASpaceOdyssey Something, Something, A Space Odyssey]]''" and Dilbert corrects him again, unable to even finish his sentence before being hit by the screaming hot temperature of 2001 degrees.

* In every version of Superman, [[RealityWarper Mr. Mxyzptlk]] can be defeated only by tricking him into saying, spelling, or otherwise indicating his own name backwards ("Kltpzyxm"). In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries,'' Superman (as Clark Kent) defeats him by casually telling him he can't fight him until he finishes proofreading the article he's just written. Mxyzptlk, impatient and annoyed at not being taken seriously, quickly proofreads it for him, crossing out his mistakes. The crossed out letters spell out ''Kltpzyxm'' and he vanishes before he realizes what he's done. In the same episode, Superman gets him by deliberately mispronouncing ''Kltpzyxm'', prompting Mxyzptlk to correct him by saying it correctly.

* In ''Manga/DrStone'', Senku needs knowledge of glassblowing, which has been lost for 3700 years. So he gets his friends to tie up the craftsman Kaiseki and forces him to watch his failed attempts at glassblowing. Soon enough, Kaiseki is infuriated enough to burst free from his ropes and show Senku how it's done... even though up until now, he had no idea what glass even ''was'' (even though he doesn't know precisely what glass is, he has enough general knowledge of crafting that can transfer over to glassblowing).

* Late in ''VideoGame/Portal2'', Wheatley [[spoiler:hooked up into [=GlaDOS=]' body in control of the testing facility]] attempts to provide the player the solution to the puzzle, [[NoFairCheating and ends up receiving a nasty shock]]. Once the player finishes the test, [=GlaDOS=] cheerily relays that all they had to do was to push a lever. Wheatley tries to correct her (it was actually a button), and gets zapped again for it.

This is a TruthInTelevision, since somehow we all have different extents of SuperOCD to become perfect, and correct every mistake we find. And bad things are usually more memorable than normal ones, which may also have contributed to it. And oh well, did we tell you that correcting others provides a form of superiority?

A form of SchmuckBait, and one of the common ways of invoking YouJustToldMe. Sub Tropes include GrammarNazi, StylisticSuck, Administrivia/EditWar, GrammarCorrectionGag, FandomEnragingMisconception, and possibly CensorDecoy. See also SoBadItsGood, TheInternetIsSeriousBusiness, AccentuateTheNegative. DistractingDisambiguation, XylophoneGag. Compare SuperOCD, ThePerfectionist, DontBeRidiculous, BlunderCorrectingImpulse, ReversePsychology, and FlameBait. Contrast BystanderSyndrome. May result in {{Hypocrite}}, LetsSeeYouDoBetter, NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer, AluminumChristmasTrees.

It's also the very reason of Website/ThisVeryWiki to have Administrivia/RepairDontRespond, as well as preventing Administrivia/{{Natter}} and FlameBait.

** Lieutenant Columbo plays this game on Paul Galesko who murdered his wife and an associate exconvict "fall-guy" to make it look like a kidnapping-murder. By mirroring a photo and playing it off as "proof" that the murder took place at a different time (due to the analog clock being mirrored). Paul gets upset, loses his sense of avoiding self-incrimination, and impulsively reaches for the camera he used to show Columbo where the originals are. But how would he know which camera to pick unless he took the photos himself?
** In the episode "The Bye-Bye Sky High I.Q. Murder Case", Columbo constructs the contraption the killer used to make it sound like the murder happened while he was outside the room. However, Columbo deliberately put an error into the contraption, knowing the murderer [[{{Pride}} wouldn't be able to resist correcting it]]. The killer is stunned at what he just did and [[WorthyOpponent impressed that Columbo outsmarted him]].

* In ''Series/{{Columbo}}'', Lieutenant Columbo plays this game on Paul Galesko who murdered his wife and an associate exconvict "fall-guy" to make it look like a kidnapping-murder. By mirroring a photo and playing it off as "proof" that the murder took place at a different time (due to the analog clock being mirrored). Paul gets upset, loses his sense of avoiding self-incrimination, and impulsively reaches for the camera he used to show Columbo where the originals are. But how would he know which camera to pick unless he took the photos himself?
* In the ''Series/{{Columbo}}'' episode "The Bye-Bye Sky High I.Q. Murder Case", Columbo constructs the contraption the killer used to make it sound like the murder happened while he was outside the room. However, Columbo deliberately put an error into the contraption, knowing the murderer [[{{Pride}} wouldn't be able to resist correcting it]].

* In ''Series/Columbo'', Lieutenant Columbo plays this game on Paul Galesko who murdered his wife and exconvict associate to make it look like a kidnapping-murder. By mirroring a photo and playing it off as "proof" that the murder took place at a different time (due to the analog clock being mirrored). Paul gets upset, loses his sense of avoiding self-incrimination, and impulsively reaches for the camera he used to show Columbo where the originals are. But how would he know which camera to pick unless he took the photos himself?

* ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'':
** Captain Holt once deliberately submitted a proposal to his superiors with extremely minor grammatical errors (improper colon/semicolon use, split infinitives, etc.) so that his superior (and sworn nemesis) Madeline Wuntch would see them and reject the proposal. The reasoning being rejecting a proposal for such petty reasons would allow him to go over her head and have a better chance of getting what he wants.
** Amy Santiago's perfectionist tendencies leave her vulnerable to this trope. Co-workers will often mess with her by leaving something ever so slightly out of place so that she has no choice but to flip out while trying to correct them.
* In ''Series/Columbo'', Lieutenant Columbo plays this game on Paul Galesko who murdered his wife and exconvict associate to make it look like a kidnapping-murder. By mirroring a photo and playing it off as "proof" that the murder took place at a different time (due to the analog clock being mirrored). Paul gets upset, loses his sense of avoiding self-incrimination, and impulsively [[spoiler: reaches for the camera he used to show Columbo where the originals are. But how would he know which camera to pick unless he took the photos himself?]]
* In one episode of ''Series/OpenAllHours'', Arkwright put up a sign with deliberately bad grammar in the hopes that people would come into the shop to correct it.
* In the ''Series/{{Columbo}}'' episode "The Bye-Bye Sky High I.Q. Murder Case", Columbo constructs the contraption the killer used to make it sound like the murder happened while he was outside the room. However, Columbo deliberately put an error into the contraption, knowing the murderer [[{{Pride}} wouldn't be able to resist correcting it]].

* ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace'': In the episode "Back to Max", Alex and Justin accidentally turned Professor Crumbs into a ten-years-old boy indefinitely in an effort to keep him from finding out that they turned their brother into a little girl a few episodes before, with the two claiming it's a way to teach Justin's class how to reverse an Indefinite spell. After struggling to come up with an antidote, tricks Crumbs by saying a list of wrong ingredients for a counterspell, and as she expected he lists the correct ingredients.

It's also the very reason of Wiki/ThisVeryWiki to have Administrivia/RepairDontRespond, as well as preventing Administrivia/{{Natter}} and FlameBait.

A form of SchmuckBait, and one of the common ways of invoking YouJustToldMe. Sub Tropes include GrammarNazi, StylisticSuck, Administrivia/EditWar, GrammarCorrectionGag, FandomEnragingMisconception. See also SoBadItsGood, TheInternetIsSeriousBusiness, AccentuateTheNegative. DistractingDisambiguation, XylophoneGag. Compare SuperOCD, ThePerfectionist, DontBeRidiculous, BlunderCorrectingImpulse, ReversePsychology, and FlameBait. Contrast BystanderSyndrome. May result in {{Hypocrite}}, LetsSeeYouDoBetter, NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer, AluminumChristmasTrees.

You don't know why it's so wrong. Maybe they did not do the research, and suffered from CriticalResearchFailure. Maybe they knew it all along, but then decided to ignore it. Maybe [[StylisticSuck it's done deliberately]]. Maybe they just want to lure you out. But whatever, [[EnragedByIdiocy you're annoyed by the wrongness]], and now ''you can't stop your urge to correct it''!

** In ''The Sign of the Four'', Holmes gets the description of a boat he's looking for from the captain's wife not by asking, but by pretending that he knows the boat but can't remember it well and getting all the details wrong.
-->'''Holmes:''' She’s not that old green launch with a yellow line, very broad in the beam?\\

* In one episode of ''Series/TheMentalist'', the team takes the case of a woman who was murdered while searching for the man who stabbed her father to death. Jane suspects a man who is known for correcting people, so he intentionally gets a detail wrong while discussing the father's case in front of the suspect (he states that the father was stabbed 14 times, when the real number was 18). The suspect -- who claimed he had never met the victim -- reflexively corrects him, thus revealing that he ''had'' met the victim and talked with her before her death.