History Main / NotMyLuckyday

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': The dog needs an expensive operation, so the family cuts back on luxuries. This includes Lisa's monthly encyclopedia purchase--which happens to cover Copernicus, which turns out to be the subject for that week's report in school--Marge's weekly lottery ticket--so of course Marge's numbers come up right on cue--and new clothes for baby Maggie...who chooses just this week to have a growth spurt. This actually leaves the whole family angry at the dog for essentially robbing them of such good luck to the point he leaves, feeling unwanted.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales'', Magica de Spell was able to curse the infamously lucky Gladstone Gander with bad luck -- an agonizing experience for Gladstone and a cathartic experience for fans of the source material comics.

* Admit it. We've ''all'' had days like this at some point, or at least days that ''felt'' like it.

There are bad days, there are ''really'' bad days, and then there's this day. The kind of day that ''should'' have been the luckiest one of your life, except for one little problem that makes all the good luck you should be having mean nothing at all. Maybe your usual numbers won on the week you agreed to stop throwing your money away on lottery tickets. Maybe the Publisher's Clearinghouse letter you threw away really ''was'' worth a million dollars. Maybe, on the first day of your new diet, the kid who was right behind you in the 7-11 finds a golden ticket in his candy bar.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': The dog needs an expensive operation, so the family cuts back on luxuries. This includes Lisa's monthly encyclopedia purchase--which happens to cover Copernicus, which turns out to be the subject for that week's report in school--Marge's weekly lottery ticket--so of course Marge's numbers come up right on cue--and new clothes for baby Maggie...who chooses just this week to have a growth spurt.

* Lampshaded in the ''MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' sketch "Cheese Shop." The customer is running down a list of possible cheeses he can buy only for the proprietor to tell him the shop is out of it.

* The little big-nosed man in ThePinkPanther cartoon "Lucky Pink" is a would-be bank robber who finds a horseshoe. But contrary to tradition, it brings him nothing but bad luck. Every time he tries to get rid of the horseshoe, the Panther returns it to him, under the presumption that the guy is missing it.

* Several of the events in AlanisMorissette's ''Isn't It Ironic?'', such as the man who wins the lottery then dies the next day, and the free ride when you've already paid.

* One Disney Ducks comic by Keno Creator/DonRosa, "The Sign of the Triple Distelfink", reveals that LuckyBastard Gladstone Gander's birthday is the one day of every year when he's unlucky. Unfortunately for many readers, the story ends with the discovery that the titular magical symbol, which is what gives Gladstone all of his infamous luck, was flawed when created, and it's fixed, meaning this one chink in Gladstone's armor is gone. It's not a very popular story for that reason.

* A different kind is portrayed in the first episode (and opening titles) of ''MyNameIsEarl'': Earl wins at scratch cards, but while he's celebrating, he gets rammed by a car.

* ''TheProudFamily'': Dejenay wants to buy a soda because of a $50000 instant win sweepstakes going on. Penny Proud gives her a reason not to: "It's the difference between watching a movie, and watching Leave It To Beaver, without the sound." And it turns out that the bottle Dejenay was going to buy contained a $50k prize.

-->-- '''Alexander,''' ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day]]''

->"I'm having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day."

* ''[[MissBindergarten Miss Bindergarten Has A Wild Day In Kindergarten]]''.

* ''HanginWithMrCooper'' and ''{{Webster}}'' both had plotlines where someone buys a lottery ticket with their age as one of the numbers (so they think), and everyone thinks that the someone has won the jackpot... until it's discovered that the character fibbed about their age when buying the ticket. D'oh! (Once again, the "5 numbers out of 6 is still worth a lot of cash" angle is ignored.)

* Minor subversion: On an episode of ''{{Nurses}}'', the nurses' lottery ticket numbers are drawn -- but the person who bought the ticket got one of the numbers wrong. But this time, they actually _do_ realize that 5 of 6 numbers wins them a good deal of money, after the {{Aesop}} on how they really do care about the person who screwed up.

* One episode of ''EverybodyHatesChris'' has Chris going to buy a lottery ticket for his dad, but he decides to spend the money on something else instead. Naturally, that's the day his dad's numbers turn out to win.
* Almost every episode of ''MarriedWithChildren''.
* The first half of the ''{{Scrubs}}'' episode "My Butterfly" has everything going wrong for the characters, resulting in a patient dying on the operating table. The second half replays the day with everything going ''right'' ... [[MoodWhiplash and then the patient dies anyway]].

* One Disney Ducks comic by Keno DonRosa, "The Sign of the Triple Distelfink", reveals that LuckyBastard Gladstone Gander's birthday is the one day of every year when he's unlucky. Unfortunately for many readers, the story ends with the discovery that the titular magical symbol, which is what gives Gladstone all of his infamous luck, was flawed when created, and it's fixed, meaning this one chink in Gladstone's armor is gone. It's not a very popular story for that reason.

* ''TheJamieFoxxShow'': Some hotelier lady won't let some worker at the hotel buy his regular lottery numbers. And it turns that no one won... and that the "asinine" winning numbers of 1-2-3-4-5, were that worker's usual numbers (Not really asinine, as statistically speaking, any sequence of numbers is exactly as likely as any other.)

* Expand the window to three days and you have the ''[[GratuitousJapanese nijyuu hibakusha]]'', people who managed to be in Hiroshima and Nagasaki [[NukeEm when the bombs went off]].

-->'''Alexander,''' ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day]]''

* In one episode of ''DuckTales'', Magica de Spell was able to curse the infamously lucky Gladstone Gander with bad luck -- an agonizing experience for Gladstone and a cathartic experience for fans of the source material comics.

* ''HeyArnold!'': Oskar Kokoshka is usually bad at poker, but today he's so confident of his current poker hand, he's betting the baby he's babysitting... but his poker partners won't allow it, and leave. And it turns out to be a royal flush.

* When DangerMouse and Penfold help track down an alien's furry, prolific pet--a "tickle-o-hippus"--and constantly mess up doing so (episode "Multiplication Fable"), they each comment "This is not going to be my day."

* One Disney Ducks comic by Keno DonRosa reveals that LuckyBastard Gladstone Gander's birthday is the one day of every year when he's unlucky (at least, it was until the glitch in the magic that made his mother lucky is fixed by the end of the story).

* ''TheBill'': Everyone thinks Reg Hollis has won the lottery because his numbers have all come up, and it turns out for some reason that he changed one of them. The result of this is that he gets hosed down in a cell and the fact that 5 numbers (in most case) still gets a substantial prize between them is completely ignored.

----

->'''Alexander:''' But my mom says, some days are like that... even in Asutralia.

-"I'm having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day."

* In the ABC ''{{Columbo}}'' episode "Death Hits the Jackpot", A young man in the final stages of a divorce wins the jackpot and asks his Uncle (Rip Torn) to cash in the ticket and hold the money for him so he won't have to split it with his soon-to-be ex-wife. Naturally his Uncle kills him. A VERY bad day indeed.

* ''HangingWithMrCooper'' and ''{{Webster}}'' both had plotlines where someone buys a lottery ticket with their age as one of the numbers (so they think), and everyone thinks that the someone has won the jackpot... until it's discovered that the character fibbed about their age when buying the ticket. D'oh! (Once again, the "5 numbers out of 6 is still worth a lot of cash" angle is ignored.)