History Main / EpicFail

[[caption-width-right:350:[[HowIsThatEvenPossible H...how did you even manage to]] ''[[HowIsThatEvenPossible do]]'' [[CarMeetsHouse that?!?]]]]

Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease

[[caption-width-right:350:[[HowIsThatEvenPossible H...how did you even manage to]] ''[[HowIsThatEvenPossible do]]'' [[HowIsThatEvenPossible that?!?]]]]

[[caption-width-right:350:H-HowIsThatEvenPossible!]]

[[Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease No real-life examples, please.]]

We're not talking "[[BadBoss villain tries to shoot one of his mooks]] but [[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy misses]]." We're talking "villain tries to shoot one of his mooks, misses, ricochets the shot off two walls, smashes the control panel of his Doomsday Machine, causes said Doomsday Machine to topple into a structural support inches from the mook's head, [[DisasterDominoes breaks the structural support]], brings down the whole base in a massive collapse that destroys the villain's lair entirely, and [[{{Irony}} the mook that the villain shot at is the only survivor]]." It's a failure so ludicrously, unexpectedly bizarre that, despite its status as a failure, it manages also to be admirable for its uniqueness and irreproducibility.

* In the first season of CriticalRole, Vex is trying to retrieve a diamond at the bottom of a cliff, and enlists the Druid Keyleth's help. Due to a series of comically bad choices, she ends up splatting into the ground for 363 damage. For reference, this was more than double her maximum starting HP, and would have killed any member of Vox Machina save for a raging Grog outright. All in an attempt to do a cool Pocahontas style cliff-dive.

** In the Loretta Lynn episode, the Muppets perform a song titled [=''The Rhyming Song''=]. Almost ''none'' of the lyrics rhyme, and when they do, the singers rhyme [=''song''=] with [=''song''=].

* Most of the gags in ''Manhua/OldMasterQ'' ends runs on this. For instance, one comic have Master Q trying to hammer a nail into a wall to hang a picture... only to accidentally knock a hole through it. A ''man-sized'' hole.

** Possibly the most epic fail of all was the one where the cast turned the show into a BirthdayEpisode for Kermit. Not only was it ''not'' Kermit's birthday, it was about ''six months'' later. (Hard to get a date worse than ''that''.)

* CBS Sports' weekday radio broadcast ''The D.A. Show'', hosted by Damon Amendolara (9 AM - 12 Noon ET), always ends with the "Epic Fail," spotlightling the worst call-in of the morning.

** EpicFail/GameShows

** In the Edgar Bergin episode, Gonzo the Great wrestles a brick blindfolded...and ''loses''.

[[caption-width-right:350:H-How did you even ''manage'' that?!]]

* ''Roleplay/MSFHighForum'':
** In the roleplay, there was once a round of combat where eight people, of the same level, were fighting each other...and no one hit ANYONE.
** There was also a round of combat that took three to four days to roll, where nobody hit anybody, with eight combatants? This qualifies.

* The entire reign of the Roman emperor Didius Julianus, as portrayed in ''Podcast/TotalusRankium'' (and their historical sources). Julianus purchased the Imperial title from the Praetorian Guard, who had just murdered his predecessor, and spent his short reign panicking as the general Septimius Severus marched on the capital to take it off his hands. Several [[ZanyScheme zany schemes]] (including, but not limited to attempting to train circus elephants to fight and hiring magicians to curse Severus) utterly failed, and Julianus was killed only two months into his reign. AndThereWasMuchRejoicing.

* The entire reign of the Roman emperor Didius Julianus, as portrayed in ''Podcast/TotalusRankium'' (and their historical sources). Julianus purchased the Imperial title from the Praetorian Guard, who had just murdered his predecessor, and spent his short reign panicking as the general Septimius Severus marched on the capital to take it off his hands. Several [[ZanyScheme ZanySchemes]] (including, but not limited to attempting to train circus elephants to fight and hiring magicians to curse Severus) utterly failed, and Julianus was killed only two months into his reign. AndThereWasMuchRejoicing.

** EpicFail/TheSimpsons

[[caption-width-right:350:H-How did you even ''do'' that?!]]

This is when a task that should be fairly straightforward and typical for a character {{goes HORRIBLY wrong}} in a manner that defies the laws of probability, and occasionally the laws of physics. It's when a character seems to be facing a pass-or-fail situation, a do-or-die type of test, and then fate hands them a [[TakeAThirdOption third option]]: failing in a manner that's so bizarre, it's almost impressive.

[[caption-width-right:350:H-How did you even ''manage'' that?!]]