History Main / FourTermsFallacy

* Anadin pain pills used to be marketed with the slogan "Nothing acts faster than Anadin", prompting the zinger "So take nothing -- it's cheaper". [[spoiler: that's how homeopathy started--except for the cheaper part! Hey-yo]]

->''"I live by syllogisms: God is love. Love is blind. Music/StevieWonder is blind. Therefore, Stevie Wonder is God. I don't know what I'd believe in if it wasn't for that."''

* Then there's the story about the parent who buys {{Hentai}} for their 10-year-old, only to return it in a rage to the store where they bought it, because in spite of the explicit picture on the front, and the ratings and warnings all over the box, they reasoned that, [[AnimationAgeGhetto "It's animated, cartoons are animated, and cartoons are for kids, so it must be for kids!"]]

* [[JustForFun/ZerothLawOfTropeExamples Shakespeare did it first.]] In ''Theatre/AsYouLikeIt'', Touchstone proves that Corin is going to hell because he's never been in court.

[[folder:Music]]
* This excerpt from Music/TheSmashingPumpkins' "Zero":
-->''Emptiness is loneliness.\\
And loneliness is cleanliness.\\
And cleanliness is godliness.\\
And God is empty, just like me.''
[[/folder]]

* [[ZerothLawOfTropeExamples Shakespeare did it first.]] In ''Theatre/AsYouLikeIt'', Touchstone proves that Corin is going to hell because he's never been in court.

* Anadin pain pills used to be marketed with the slogan "Nothing acts faster than Anadin", prompting the zinger "So take nothing -- it's cheaper". [[spoiler: that's how homeopathy started. Hey-yo]]

* Anadin pain pills used to be marketed with the slogan "Nothing acts faster than Anadin", prompting the zinger "So take nothing -- it's cheaper".

* Played for laughs in a ''WesternAnimation/{{Histeria}}'' sketch about Rene Descartes (and a number of other jokes on the same topic): After Descarte makes his famous proposition that "I think, therefore I am." (i.e. if he can't think at all, he must exist), a cavalcade of distractions cause him to proclaim "I can't think!" (meaning he can't think ''clearly''), whereupon he disappears in a PuffOfLogic.

* Played for laughs in a ''WesternAnimation/{{Hysteria}}'' sketch about Rene Descartes (and a number of other jokes on the same topic): After Descarte makes his famous proposition that "I think, therefore I am." (i.e. if he can't think at all, he must exist), a cavalcade of distractions cause him to proclaim "I can't think!" (meaning he can't think ''clearly''), whereupon he disappears in a PuffOfLogic.

* Played for laughs in a ''WesternAnimation/{{Hysteria}}'' sketch about Rene Descartes (and a number of other jokes on the same topic): After Descarte makes his famous proposition that "I think, therefore I mean" (i.e. if I can't think at all, he must exist), a cavalcade of distractions cause him to proclaim "I can't think!" (meaning he can't think ''clearly''), whereupon he disappears in a PuffOfLogic.

** ComicStrip/{{Garfield}} has a similar philosophy. "If nobody is perfect, I must be nobody."
** Similarly, Anadin pain pills used to be marketed with the slogan "Nothing acts faster than Anadin", prompting the zinger "So take nothing -- it's cheaper".

* An old joke: When you drink, you get drunk. When you get drunk, you go to sleep. When you go to sleep, you commit no sin. When you commit no sin, you go to {{Heaven}}. So, let's all get drunk and go to Heaven! Which is inverted in [=DirecTV's=] Advertising/GetRidOfCable commercials that begin with [[CableSatelliteMudslinging some frustration pertaining to cable]], and follows up with an increasingly bizarre set of DisasterDominoes.

* Another commonly cited example:
-->All dogs have four legs.\\
My cat has four legs.\\
Therefore, my cat is a dog.

* In [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0725.html this]] ''[[Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick Order of the Stick]]'', the Empress is committing the Four Terms fallacy by using "grown larger" in two different senses: Dragons that are more powerful have grown larger (as a result of age), so she thinks that if she grows larger (by eating more and getting fat) that she will also be more powerful. That's not the only fallacy involved in her reasoning, either.

* Then there's the story about the parent who buys {{Hentai}} for their 10-year-old, only to return it in a rage to the store where they bought it, because in spite of the explicit picture on the front, and the ratings and warnings all over the box, reasoning that, [[AnimationAgeGhetto "It's a cartoon, and cartoons are for kids, so it must be kid-friendly!"]]

* Comedian Creator/RichardJeni talks about when he learned about the syllogism in college in his ''Crazy from the Heat'' stand-up routine. God is love. Love is blind. Therefore, Music/RayCharles is God. Also, men are going bald, and they're from planet Earth. Women are not losing hair. Therefore, women are not from Earth.

[[folder:Comedy]]
* Comedian Creator/RichardJeni talks about when he learned about the syllogism in college in his ''Crazy from the Heat'' stand-up routine. God is love. Love is blind. Therefore, Music/RayCharles is God. Also, men are going bald, and they're from planet Earth. Women are not losing hair. Therefore, women are not from Earth.

* [=HuHot=] Mongolian Grill used this fallacy in a comic radio ad promoting their new "to-go" service, aired in mid 2017. The two people speaking are a museum guard and a woman eating a HuHot To-Go Meal. He tells her that she can't eat that here (in the museum). She replies that certainly she can, it's designed to be eaten anywhere. He repeats that she can't eat it in the museum, adding that there's a "no-food policy". She again asserts that she not only ''can'' eat it there, she ''is'' eating it there. The term that's doubled-up is "can". The guard is using it in the sense of "allowed or permitted", the woman is using it in the sense of "capable of".

* In a museum, an employee sees a patron tapping on one of the replicas with his fist.
-->'''Employee:''' Sir, please don't touch that.\\
'''Patron:''' But it's a replica, isn't it?\\
'''Employee:''' Yes, it is, but we still ask for you not to touch it.\\
'''Patron:''' Well, it's not under a glass case, which means it's not valuable. I have every right to touch it.\\
'''Employer:''' No, actually--\\
'''Patron:''' Yes, if I see something that's not cased, it means I can touch it, AND I WILL TOUCH IT!
:: :The four terms used in the fallacy here are
## "It is not in a glass case"
## "I can (in the sense of "am physically able to") touch it",
## "I can (in the sense of "am permitted to") touch it" and
## "I will touch it".
:: :If 1 is true, then 2 is true; if 3 is true, then 4 is true. What's missing is the necessary step establishing either that 2 and 3 are the same (they aren't), or, that if 2 is true, 3 is true as well (it isn't).

* This joke: A kid asks his teacher "You wouldn't punish me for something I didn't do, would you?" The teacher says "Of course I wouldn't." The kid says, "Good, because I didn't do my homework!" (He's changing the meaning of "something I didn't do" from "something wrong that was not done by me" to "something I should have done and failed to.") This joke also came up in the third ''Literature/CaptainUnderpants'' book.

* A cat has three tails. No cat has two tails, and one cat has one more tail than no cat; therefore, one cat has three tails.
* Two versions of {{Fauxtivational Poster}}s in places of education:
** One version:
-->Knowledge is power.\\
Power corrupts.\\
Study hard. [[EvilIsCool It makes you evil]].
** Alternatively:
-->Knowledge is power.\\
Power corrupts.\\
Corruption is a crime.\\
Crime never pays.\\
Study hard. It makes you broke.
* Another commonly cited example:
-->All dogs have four legs.\\
My cat has four legs.\\
Therefore, my cat is a dog.

* We've all heard the story about the parent who buys {{Hentai}} for their 10-year-old, only to return it in a rage to the store where they bought it, because in spite of the explicit picture on the front, and the ratings and warnings all over the box, reasoning that, [[AnimationAgeGhetto "It's a cartoon, and cartoons are for kids, so it must be kid-friendly!"]]

:: The four terms used in the fallacy here are
# "It is not in a glass case"
# "I can (in the sense of "am physically able to") touch it",
# "I can (in the sense of "am permitted to") touch it" and
# "I will touch it".
::If 1 is true, then 2 is true; if 3 is true, then 4 is true. What's missing is the necessary step establishing either that 2 and 3 are the same (they aren't), or, that if 2 is true, 3 is true as well (it isn't).

* An old joke: When you drink, you get drunk. When you get drunk, you go to sleep. When you go to sleep, you commit no sin. When you commit no sin, you go to {{Heaven}}. So, let's all get drunk and go to Heaven! Which is inverted in the commercials for [=DirecTV=] that begin with [[CableSatelliteMudslinging some frustration pertaining to cable]], and follows up with an increasingly bizarre set of DisasterDominoes.

* Comedian Creator/RichardJeni talks about when he learned about the syllogism in college in his ''Crazy from the Heat'' stand-up routine.

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* The [[OmnicidalManiac Heys]] in ''WesternAnimation/TheTick'' worship Nothing, as outlined in translation from their PokemonSpeak: "Nothing lasts forever. Nothing is worth fighting for."
** Not really a Four Terms Fallacy, just a normal syllogism with an implicit proposition of "Only things that last forever are worth fighting for" and it really hinges on the acceptance of that proposition. Note that the two times "nothing" appears it means the same thing.
[[/folder]]

* Comedian RichardJeni talks about when he learned about the syllogism in college, giving a shortened version of the page quote as an example (Music/RayCharles instead of Music/StevieWonder), in his ''Crazy from the Heat'' stand-up routine.

* The Creator/StephenColbert quote at the top of the page is an example of such a fallacy, with a dash of ConverseError for flavor.

* There's an old joke revolving around the word ''nothing'', similar to the example above, where a bar patron turns down a beer from the bartender because "nothing is better than a cold drink".

* We've all heard the story about the parent who buys a {{Hentai}} for their 10-year-old, only to return it in a rage to the store where they bought it, because in spite of the explicit picture on the front, and the ratings and warnings all over the box, reasoning that, [[AnimationAgeGhetto "It's a cartoon, and cartoons are for kids, so it must be kid-friendly!"]]

* A version commonly found on {{Fauxtivational Poster}}s in places of education:

* The above FauxtivationalPoster also has a well-known counterargument taking the same logic further: