History Main / ReadingsAreOffTheScale

* In ''LightNovel/BakaAndTestSummonTheBeasts'', during a FuroScene, Shimada examines several other girls' breasts with size-detecting heat vision. One... generously endowed character [[GagBoobs causes the numbers to max out.]]

* ''LightNovel/HowNotToSummonADemonLord'': There is a mirror that measures people's PowerLevels. When Diablo tries it, he's too powerful, so it malfunctions and shuts down.

* ''LightNovel/ArifuretaFromCommonplaceToWorldsStrongest'': The RolePlayingGameVerse of Tortus features items called "status plates" that describe the stats and abilities of their owners. Hajime Nagumo starts as a Level 1 Synergist, but by the time he finishes the Great Orcus Labyrinth, becoming a PhlebotinumMuncher in the process, his status plate gives up the ghost, displaying his level as "???".

* ''Literature/TheBlackMagicianTrilogy'': The position of High Lord in Imardin's WizardingSchool goes to [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority the strongest mage]], which is tested by measuring how long the applicant's {{Mana}} reserves can withstand an assault by twenty senior mages. Akkarin defeated all twenty at once instead. [[spoiler:This is an early sign that he uses the VampiricDraining of Black Magic to boost his power to otherwise impossible heights.]]

* ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' has Gilgamesh´s sword, Ea, a rank EX Noble Phantasm with the ability to destroy reality and slice the world in 2 (the scale goes from E- to A++ for anything but the most ridiculous Noble Phantasms). Fully charged, it does 5000 units of damage (Excalibur by comparison does 200) though the amount can be multiplied several times by powering it with Gil´s own mana and that of the weapons in the Gate of Babylon. It can somehow be stopped by [[NoSell Avalon]].
** Given Avalon was famous in [[Myth/ArthurianLegend Arthurian stories]] as stopping the wearer from being ever being hurt, and granting them pretty-much-immortality, this isn't as out there as it seems. In fact, Rin chides Shirou over forgetting that Excalibur was far, far less important to Arthur than the sheathe.
** The EX rank in general is this, as the rank indicates the weapon/ability cannot be properly measured. Ea is this by virtue of being incredibly powerful, but other EX abilities approach the trope from different angles. For example, A rank [[AntiMagic magic resistance]] grants incredible resilience to a spell, EX magic resistance makes spells simply miss the person entirely. A rank Mad Enhancement renders its user absurdly powerful, but completely incoherent; EX madness can be anything from "in full control of their faculties, except in this ''one'' circumstance, where they go full crazy with stats to match" to "so crazed literally nothing gets into their thick skulls, and so insane their speech goes back to being coherent".
** In ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'', where Servants are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars by power and rarity, JokeCharacter Angra Mainyu is the only one to clock in at ''zero'' stars. Atypically, he fits at both the top and bottom: he's generally weaker than any one-star (though he's actually treated as a two-star in terms of stats and level requirements), but due to his unusual requirements, [[JunkRare he is also much rarer than any five-star]].
*** Relatedly, one of his fellow Avengers, [[Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo Edmond Dantès]], has a Luck stat completely blanked out - the scale can't accurately measure the fact that the events surrounding his legend means his luck is insanely bad and absurdly good simultaneously.
** In ''Grand Order'', [[spoiler:Oberon Vortigern's]] NP is an EX-Rank Anti-World Noble Phantasm much like Ea, but unlike it and several other similarly ranked [=NPs=] in the game, it goes [[ExaggeratedTrope Up to Eleven]] in that both its Range and Maximum Targets are also listed as '''Unlimited'''. That's because [[spoiler:Lie Like Vortigern is basically a sentient black hole that has the capacity to devour ''everything in existence''.]]
** Interestingly, in ''VideoGame/FateExtra'', CCC-exclusive character BB had her stats represented as "Star" rank, ''[[BeyondTheImpossible which is somehow above EX-Rank!]]'' Then again, as an AI-construct of the Moon Cell, she likely hacked her stats to be so high. When she appears in ''Grand Order'', they're brought down to normal, but her Luck Rank is at EX because her efforts in ''CCC'' change it from E- to EX automatically because the scale quantifies what happened to her as a miracle that only someone who had that much luck could ever accomplish.
** When [[spoiler:normal human]] Bedivere is properly scanned by Chaldea in ''Anime/FateGrandOrderDivineRealmOfTheRoundTableCamelot'', his Magic stat can only be measured as ''F'' because it's just that low in comparison to Servants.

** {{Exaggerated}} with Lostbelt 6 from ''Grand Order'', which has an EX-Rank Difference Depth, indicating that ''the whole world'' of said Lostbelt is completely and utterly alien to Pan-Human-History. [[spoiler:This is because it occurs in a timeline where the White Titan, Sefar, completely wiped away ''everything'' from the Earth's surface, effectively resetting human history to zero]].

* ''Manga/{{Beastars}}'': [[spoiler:Oguma, on his deathbed,]] [[AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther reveals that he really does love]] [[spoiler:Louis]] by explaining that he calculates the monetary value of his relationship with everyone that he knows, but when he tries to calculate the price of his relationship with [[spoiler:Louis]], the only person he loves, all he gets is an error.

* In ''VideoGame/StarCraft'', there exists a rating scale on how powerful a "psionic" (psychic) is. It goes to Class 10 as an exceptionally powerful psionic who is practically a OneManArmy. Infested Kerrigan's rating on that scale? ''Class 12!'' Eventually this is clarified that she is an order of magnitude greater than a Class 10, which they called "Class 12" for convenience. [[spoiler:After gaining her "Primal" form in ''Star Craft II: Heart of the Swarm'', she is even more powerful, and is described simply as "Unclassifiable".]]
** For bonus points, when Kerrigan was human the scale had to be redesigned as she had been off the scale. On the redesigned psionic scale, she's a 10.

* The ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'' grades anomalous objects on one of three levels: Safe (objects that are easily contained and if left to their own devices pose little threat to humanity), Euclid (objects that are not provably hostile, but whose limits and the exact nature of their powers are unknown, thus they ''might be'' dangerous) and Keter (objects that are extremely and actively dangerous, even under containment, and are often very difficult or even impossible to contain). A rare few SCP objects are so dangerous and/or bizarre that the community has had to make up a new classification ''[[ExaggeratedTrope beyond Keter]]'': Apollyon (only one canon SCP object has this designation, and it is capable of causing XK-class End of the World Scenarios [[spoiler:and the Foundation has no known way to stop it or even slow it down]]).

* In ''ComicBook/InnocenceLost'', Rice uses this to describe ComicBook/{{X 23}}'s [[GeniusBruiser intellect and physical fitness]]. When she's ''[[TykeBomb seven years old]]''.

** This line is used in the opening where Kamina faces down an armada with an impossibly large size: The fleet size is "off the charts". The opening fades out as he orders the attack.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Cyberpunk}}'': lists [[CompleteMonster Adam Smasher's]] Empathy stat as [[SarcasmMode Yeah, right...]] According to the fluff, Smasher is simply so psychotic, sociopathic and unstable from the start that there is no lower level of sanity for cyberpsychosis to drive him to, or to put it another way, he subverts CyberneticsEatYourSoul by not having had a soul to begin with.

* The ''Apollo 13'' incident began on the ground, when one of the oxygen tanks that would later go into space with the service module was having a mechanical problem due to the tanks getting dropped during a move between spacecraft. The liquid oxygen drain was jarred and unusable. The technicians decided to vent the liquid oxygen from the tank with the help of the onboard heating system. This caused the temperature gauge (which was designed for use in space after all) to go off-scale high. However, nobody knew at the time just how far off the scale things were. The results are well-known. Specifically, looking at the Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} article, the temp gauge didn't go above 100° Fahrenheit (38° Celsius). This wasn't considered a problem, because a thermostat was supposed to cut the heat at 80° F. Unfortunately, this had fused on because when the electrical system was redesigned from 28v to 65v, the thermostat wasn't. The result was that temperatures hit an estimated '''1000° F''' (538° C) and burned the insulation off the wires. Which led to an exposed, sparking wire ''inside'' a tank of pressurized oxygen. Which then exploded.

** When Saitama first applies to join the Hero Association, his physical examination scores leave the officials speechless -- he destroys punching machines, throws a shot put through the ceiling, his standing high jump leaves him halfway through the roof, etc. As one of the HA officials remarks, "It's like there's a god residing in the body of his"... but because he utterly flunked the written exam, he only barely makes the cut at all and ends up being given the lowest rank possible.

* According to Wiki/RationalWiki, [[http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Irony_meter irony meters]] have a habit of [[ReadingsBlewUpTheScale exploding]] when this trope comes into effect.

** Finally, the characters receive a heavy-duty dosimeter and Pikalov goes up to the core in a lead-lined truck to get an accurate reading of ''15,000'' roentgens, the equivalent of [[HiroshimaAsAUnitOfMeasure two Little Boys]] per hour, confirming the true scale of the disaster.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'': The download meter (technically, that should be an upload meter) of Crockers computer: "1% complete... 0% complete... -1% complete..."

* ''VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolution'': A boss song can have one or more parts of its Groove Radar spill right over the edge. But the crowner would have to be the Groove Radar for [[VideoGame/{{Undertale}} "MEGALOVANIA"]], where it just looks like '''[[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FTr9UkOaIAAfWIT?format=jpg&name=small one giant blob]]''' plastered on top of the thing.

In comedy genres, many [[ThingOMeter Thing 'o Meters]] (like Pun 'o-meter or annoying 'o-Meter, or the ever-popular [[Film/MenInBlack Weird Shit 'o-Meter]]) will most likely tend to go off-scale, begin shaking violently, or even [[ReadingsBlewUpTheScale explode]].

** Toriyama admitted he did this intentionally, as he didn't like the hard-and-fast "this character is more powerful than that one by this amount" logic. This is shown in the story where, right off the bat, the ability to lower one's ki and fool the Scouter constantly flat-foots everyone who relies on them proving that you can't use them to judge an opponent and that technique can win over strength. Scouters were eventually phased out because the ever-increasing power levels would have made for ever-increasingly stupid sounding numbers: Frieza's was at least 1,000,000 and he's followed up by multiple villains who are many, ''many'' higher than that. According to Ryusei Nakao (Frieza's Japanese VA), Frieza's power level in his golden form in ''Anime/DragonBallZResurrectionF'' is '''''[[JustForPun 100 quintillion]]'''''.[[note]]This was meant as a pun: according to Nakao, Frieza's power level was 100 quintillion because he's "a nice guy." Gai being Japanese for 100 quintillion. Naturally it's not a serious measurement, as power levels had ceased to be relevant long before the film came out.[[/note]]

** Interestingly, in ''VideoGame/FateExtra'', CCC-exclusive character BB had her stats represented as "Star" rank, ''[[BeyondTheImpossible which is somehow above EX-Rank!]]'' Then again, as an AI-construct of the Moon Cell, she likely hacked her stats to be so high.

* ''Fanfic/TheLoudHouseRevamped'', a fanfic of ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'', became [[Doorstopper so big]] that it broke Fanfiction.net's word count scale, which is measured in a 24-bit integer (maxing out at 16,777,215).

* Bomba says this in one scene in ''WesternAnimation/{{Epic}}''.

** This line is used in the [[GainaxEnding Gainax]] [[InvertedTrope Opening]] where Kamina faces down an armada with an impossibly large size: The fleet size is "off the charts". The opening fades out as he orders the attack.

* In the ''Franchise/ShiningSeries'', any stat that is over 100 is shown as '''??'''.

* This line is used in the [[GainaxEnding Gainax]] [[InvertedTrope Opening]] of ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'', where Kamina faces down an armada with an impossibly large size: The fleet size is "off the charts". The opening fades out as he orders the attack.
** The gauge our heroes use for measuring their spiral energy is designed to handle large values: It's a logarithmic scale, which first spirals outward in one color, then switches to another color and spirals outward again, and repeats this as much as is necessary. After [[spoiler:Lordgenome's HeroicSacrifice in the final episode,]] the gauge switches immediately to a never-before-seen ''rainbow'' color, spirals out to the maximum, and then [[spoiler:the glass covering ''shatters'' and it keeps ''increasing onto empty air'']], in plain [[RuleOfCool defiance of all logic and common sense]]. In other words, spiral power went off the scale on a scale [[BeyondTheImpossible that was designed to measure things that go off the scale.]]