History Main / ExactWords

* A ''[[Advertising/TheSimpsons Simpsons]]'' commercial had this:

* Barbossa uses this twice in ''[[Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean The Curse of the Black Pearl]]''. Early in the film, he justifies kidnapping Elizabeth because she didn't mention her release in their agreement about the ship leaving Port Royal. Later, he maroons Elizabeth and Jack on a deserted island because Will didn't specify where she would be let free. In both situations involving Elizabeth, he's acting under the pirates code of Parlay. It's implied, if not stated outright, that exact words are necessary, a non-pirate wouldn't think in those terms. Jack talks about this during his "man of their word" speech. After that they stop counting on this method of negotiating.

->'''General Chang:''' You'll never take this city while I am alive, monster!\\

* When ''TheMickeyMouseClub'' returned to television in 1989 with a whole new generation of Mouseketeers, they spoofed TimBurton's ''{{Batman}}'' film with a segment called "Bratman", in which the superhero is a spoiled little boy who plays pranks on people and is mean to his butler. The butler decides to teach Bratman a lesson by paying "The Practical Jokester" to torment him. One of the Jokester's tricks is urging Bratman to take a sniff of the flower in his lapel, promising that "my flower will ''not'' squirt you with water." Bratman sniffs the flower - and immediately gets squirted in the face. Bratman starts crying and wails: "You said your flower wouldn't squirt me with water!" The Jokester's response? "IT WAS SELTZER! [[EvilLaugh HAHAHAHAHAHA!]]"

** Subverted at the 1997 Royal Rumble, where Stone Cold Steve Austin won by sneaking back into the ring after both his feet had touched the floor when he noticed that the referee had never seen his elimination because he was distracted by an altercation at the other end of the ring.

** Wrestling/ShawnMichaels [[http://youtu.be/8SrcDzrKCtc?t=12m2s after being clotheslined by the British Bulldog]]

* In the Wrestling/RoyalRumble, the only way to be eliminated, is to be thrown over the top rope and ''both'' feet must touch the floor. This has been taken advantage of, as some guys roll under the bottom rope and wait until later to come back in. Some guys have utilized other techniques.

** Nunzio also stopped before reaching the ring and sat down by the barricade until he was ready. (In his defense, he had just been beaten up by MickFoley, so he didn't feel strong enough to fight right away.)

* ''Webcomic/{{Freefall}}'': An inspector tried to create an angry mob to get Sam Starfall's ass handed to him, but a series of misunderstanding soon turned the angry mob into a ''frightened'' one, and the inspector correctly suspect that [[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff900/fv00828.htm Sam is behind it]].

When setting up a SecretTestOfCharacter, a character will often declare that the fate of the character being tested will depend on the "results" or "outcome", rather than on his success. (Though outright lying about what is being tested is not unknown.)

It can also be phrased as "I said this, I didn't say THAT," when it seems evidence to the contrary of what was thought to have been said is provided.

For magical enforcement, see LiteralGenie. Often the cause of ProphecyTwist. LiteralMinded characters just do it because that's how they think.

Can be defended against with [[ReadTheFinePrint Legalese.]] though might be used (and horribly abused) by a RulesLawyer.

If someone follows established rules to annoy someone else, it becomes BotheringByTheBook.

If this trope is related to or defines a superpower, it's called a SemanticSuperpower.

** Also, Harvey Dent, shortly after "snapping" and trying to interrogate Sal Maroni, replied to Maroni's question about whether he'd let him go if he told him the other cop. Dent replies that it "wouldn't hurt his chances." He really meant it, but he never said it would help his chances, either. [[spoiler:True to his roots, [[ItWasHisSled it was a coin-flip.]]]] Also, when Maroni [[spoiler:won that coin toss]], Dent stayed true to his word and didn't shoot him. However, [[spoiler:he didn't say anything about deciding the driver's fate via coin toss, and thus killing him when he lost the coin toss.]]

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* Used in a self-aware fashion in the ''Literature/EnchantedForestChronicles''. Cimorene's {{Unwanted|Harem}} [[HopelessSuitor Suitor]] wishes to defeat a dragon and marry his (the dragon's) princess; after the wish is made, Cimorene points out that her dragon is female and therefore the wish doesn't apply because the knight said "his". However, she does point him towards another princess.

* Used in a self-aware fashion in the ''Literature/EnchantedForestChronicles''. Cimorene's {{Unwanted|Harem}} [[HopelessSuitor Suitor]] wishes to defeat a dragon and marry his (the dragon's) princess; after the wish is made, Cimorene points out that her dragon is female and therefore the wish doesn't apply. However, she does point him towards another princess.

* Used in a self-aware fashion in the ''Literature/EnchantedForestChronicles''. Cimorene's {{Unwanted|Harem}} [[HopelessSuitor Suitor]] wishes to defeat a dragon and marry his princess; after the wish is made, Cimorene points out that her dragon is female and therefore the wish doesn't apply. However, she does point him towards another princess.

** In season 6 Spike, sick of his tortured relationship with Buffy and his wretched existence in general, approaches some powerful demon and implores to be changed to "his original state". He meant that the demon would remove [[RestrainingBolt the chip from his head that prevented him from harming humans]]. Demon, being, naturally, a dick, instead returned his soul to him.