History Main / CorrectionBait

* In article for Cracked, Creator/{{Seanbaby}} called out the type of nerd that thrives on smugly correcting people for trivial mistakes and theorized that when they die alone, "they go to a hell where [[IronicHell their mouth is taped shut for eternity next to people who keep saying that Carl Weathers was in]] ''Franchise/StarWars''."

* In DePatieFreleng'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.'"

** In an earlier cartoon of some sort, 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.

'''Please only list in-universe examples here -- some people may think every RealLife occurrence of this is intentionally done, which is not true. Also, no work is perfect -- to an enough picky/smart audience, there's always something that can still be corrected, so it'll end up listing every work there.'''

A form of SchmuckBait. Sub Tropes include GrammarNazi, StylisticSuck, Administrivia/EditWar, YouMakeMeSic, FandomBerserkButton. See also SoBadItsGood, TheInternetIsSeriousBusiness, AccentuateTheNegative. DistractingDisambiguation, XylophoneGag. Compare SuperOCD, ThePerfectionist, BlunderCorrectingImpulse, FlameBait and SnarkBait. Contrast BystanderSyndrome. May result in {{Hypocrite}}, LetsSeeYouDoBetter, NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer, AluminumChristmasTrees.

** Inan earlier cartoon of some sort, 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.

* 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 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 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'.]]

[[SelfDemonstratingArticle Decribe]] [[DescribeTropeHere Correction Bait here.]]

'''Please only list in-universe examples here -- some people may think every RealLife CorrectionBait is intentionally done, which is not true. Also, no work is perfect -- to an enough picky/smart audience, there's always something that can still be corrected, so it'll end up listing every work there.'''

'''Please only list in-universe examples here - some people may think every RealLife CorrectionBait is intentionally done, which is not true. Also, no work is perfect - to an enough picky/smart audience, there's always something that can still be corrected, so it'll end up listing every work there.'''

[[AC: ComicBooks]]

* In ''{{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--[[ByThePowerOfGreyskull 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.

[[AC:{{Film}}]]
* 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.]]

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
* 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 the man a hundred times the bet and not been able to simply buy the information.

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]

-->'''Penny''': I know what it means. And yes, you love correcting people and putting them down.
-->'''Sheldon''': Au contraire. When I correct people I am raising them up. You should know, I do it for you more than anyone.
-->'''Penny''': Come on, you do it to feel superior. I see that twinkle in your eye when someone says "who" instead of "whom" or thinks the moon is a planet.
-->'''Sheldon''': Or ''Literature/DonQuixote'' is a book about a donkey named Hotay.
-->'''Penny''': See, there it is, there's that twinkle.
-->'''Sheldon''': Well, I can't help it. That's an involuntary twinkle.

-->'''Spy''': Are you sure you've wormed enough information out of me, Colonel Hogan?

-->'''Blanche''': You come to ''me'' when you want advice on men. You go to Dorothy when there's grammar you need help with.
-->'''Dorothy''': You ended that sentence with a preposition just to bait me.
-->'''Blanche''': What would I do that for?

[[AC:NewspaperComics]]
* 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.
* 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.
* A ''ComicStrip/TheWizardOfID'' strip had a merchant selling eggs, his sign reading "25 cents each, 3 for a dollar". A buyer points out that he should get four eggs for a dollar. As the buyer walks away with four eggs, the merchant gleefully thinks to himself that no one ever bought more than one egg before he put up his sign.

[[AC:WebComics]]

[[AC:WebOriginal]]

* In one episode of ''WebVideo/{{Retsupurae}}'', slowbeef makes a joke about the laziness of Pokemon's animators, saying "They players won't care; they spent their 100 yen!" Later, when Proteus jokes that Kabuto is that "Japanese theater with the face paint 'n shit," he then immediately follows up by preemptively cursing out the people rushing to comment that he's talking about ''kabuki''. Slowbeef then says that it's probably the same person who's about to post "you know slowbeef, 100 yen is not a lot of money." "100 yen is not a lot of money" immediately became the "Well, actually..." of the Retsupurae fandom.

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]

* 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 ''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]].

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

-->'''Spy''': "Are you sure you've wormed enough information out of me, Colonel Hogan?"

* In one episode of ''Series/PersonOfInterest'', a gang of masked mooks have spread out across New York City to cause mayhem to distract law enforcement from a major terroristic event. Two main characters get ahold of the masks the mooks are using, stroll up to a mook, and accuse his group of being too close to the event while showing him a map. The mook is quick to defend himself, pointing out where the event is on the map and how they were nowhere close to it.

* 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 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.

* ''Film/{{Tampopo}}'' has the titular ramen chef learn another chef's methods in this way. She orders a bowl as a customer, and then claims something about it seems off. She accuses him of neither soaking the noodles long enough nor boiling them the proper number of times, and he is quick to tell her precisely how they were prepared.

* ''Film/Tampopo'' has the titular ramen chef learn another chef's methods in this way. She orders a bowl as a customer, and then claims something about it seems off. She accuses him of neither soaking the noodles long enough nor boiling them the proper number of times, and he is quick to tell her precisely how they were prepared.

* In every version of Superman, Mr. Mxyzptlk can be defeated only by tricking him into saying or spelling his own name backwards ("Kltpzyxm"). In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries,'' Superman (as Clark Kent) defeats him by casually telling him he'll fight him after proofreading the article he's just written. Mxyzptlk impatiently proofreads it for him, crossing out his mistakes. The crossed out letters spell out ''Kltpzyxm.''