History Main / RhetoricalRequestBlunder

[''The surrounding woodland creatures and trolls start to sing Music/SimonAndGarfunkel's "The Sound of Silence"'']

* Throughout the ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'' series Kyon continually wishes that he were living a normal life. In the fourth book (and in TheMovie), [[spoiler:Yuki provides just that. At least she's smart enough to give him an 'out' in case he doesn't like it.]]

* In an example that's borderline subversion, an issue of ''ComicBook/{{Deadpool}}'' features the eponymous nut-case kidnapped by the X-Men after he attempted to kill an anti-mutant crusader on national television. Domino hears Cyclops wishing that someone would take Deadpool "out of the picture". Fearing that Wolverine will kill him, she releases Deadpool from captivity. Cue Wolverine telling her that he was just going to take Deadpool with him on a secret mission to China till things cool down... but now that he's on the loose, he might now ''have'' to kill him.

* In the Creator/BrothersGrimm fairy tale ''Hans My Hedgehog'', a childless man says: "I wish I had a son, even if it was a hedgehog!". And in ''Tom Thumb'' a childless woman says "If there were just one, and even if it were terribly small, only the size of a thumb, I'd be satisfied."

* In ''Film/The51stState'', an unfortunate miscommunication occurs when [=DeSousa=] asks one of his assistants to "take care" of a nervous chemist. The assistant then goes into henchman mode, [[HilarityEnsues kills the chemist and stuffs him into the car boot]], instead of following the intended meaning which was "[[DontExplainTheJoke look after him]]".

* In ''[[Film/OhGod Oh God! You Devil]]'', failed musician Bobby Sheldon, at the end of his rope following yet another boring, low-paying, dead-end gig, says aloud to himself, "I'd sell my soul to make it in this business". Unfortunately for him, the Devil has a habit of noticing when people say things like that.

* In one Literature/TheSaint story, Simon tells HeroicComedicSociopath "Hoppy" Uniatz to "get rid of" a couple of defeated villains, meaning just "take them away from here and drop them somewhere". Hoppy interprets "get rid of" [[DeadlyEuphemism euphemistically]], shoots them, and dumps their corpses in the English Channel. When Simon finds out about this, he [[CrossesTheLineTwice isn't particularly bothered]].

* In ''Series/{{Lost}}'', Juliet is being recruited by the Others, but says she couldn't possibly join unless her ex-husband "gets hit by a bus". She meant it rhetorically. They, on the other hand, hit him with a bus.

* In the 2014 ''Series/{{Cosmos}}'' there is a non-murderous version in "The Electric Boy". After fooling around with electromagnetism but not able to make it do anything useful, Sir Humphry Davy jokingly tells his assistant Michael Faraday to see if he can make anything of it, once he's done tidying up. Michael Faraday ends up making an electric motor of it. He takes Davy's place as the toast of the scientific community; Davy is not happy.

* ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' has a village called Maskyr's Eye. Back when humans were new in that part of the world, a human mage wanted a quiet place [[MageTower for his tower]] and liked one vale. The territory did belong to a dwarven kingdom, so he got audience and asked Tuir "Stonebeard" (called so for grim stoicism -- ''[[UpToEleven for a dwarf]]''). The king didn't trust humans ''or'' powerful mages at all, and thus said "on one condition only: pluck thy right eye and give it to me here and now". He intended it as a somewhat poetical refusal and didn't expect anyone would really do such a thing.

* Played with in the play ''Fortinbras'', a faux-sequel to ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}''. The title character, when questioned on the legitimacy of him being in charge, orders two very stupid guards to bring him "the head of the Electors" meaning "chief". One of the more GenreSavvy characters is understandably nervous, especially when the guards bring Fortinbras a round object in a sack, which he interprets as an unsolicited melon. Turns out [[LampshadeHanging "it really is a melon!"]]

--->'''Para Ventura:''' Sometimes the back door is "you're an idiot".

* In the December 2004 issue of Hammer magazine, Phil Anselmo ranted against former [[Music/{{Pantera}} band]]mate Dimebag Darrell, saying he should be "beaten severely". A week after the issue came out, a fan took matters into his own hands -- shooting Dime four times in the head at point-blank range, and killing three other people who tried to stop him.

* In ''Film/TheThiefOfBagdad'', Prince Ahmad sees the princess in an All-Seeing Eye and discovers that she is being courted by the villain. Understandably upset by this, he says "Oh, I wish I were in Bagdad right now!" His sidekick, the eponymous thief Abu, is annoyed by Ahmad's angsting over the princess by this point, so he says "I wish you were!" Unfortunately, a LiteralGenie is standing nearby, and whisks the prince away to Bagdad. Without Abu.

* In ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' episode "The Painted Lady", the Gaang travel to a floating village in a bog polluted by the nearby Fire Nation factory. The Gaang are trying to keep a low profile and can't focus too much on time on helping the locals either due to having their own problems to deal with, much to Katara's chagrin. When Katara complains about it, Sokka sarcastically says that they could just blow up the factory and everything would be better, Later, when Aang discovers that Katara has been helping the locals as the Painted Lady, Aang decides to help her and suggests they do Sokka's idea. It works, but the soldiers decide to attack the village in retaliation. When Sokka finds out they took him seriously, he's exasperated by their inability to take his [[SarcasmFailure sarcasm]] as it is.

* In ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' episode "The Painted Lady", the Gaang travel to a floating village in a bog polluted by the nearby Fire Nation factory. The Gaang are trying to keep a low profile and can't focus too much on time on helping the locals either due to having their own problems to deal with, much to Katara's chagrin. When Katara complains about it, Sokka sarcastically says that they could just blow up the factory and everything would be better, Later, when Aang discovers that Katara has been helping the locals as the Painted Lady, Aang decides to help her and suggests they do Sokka's idea. It works, but the soldiers decide to attack the village in retaliation. When Sokka finds out they took him seriously, he's exasperated by their inability to take his [[SarcasmBackfire sarcasm]] as it is.

* In ''Anime/CodeGeass'', Lelouch says that with his powers, he could tell Euphemia something like [[spoiler:"Kill all the Japanese."]] Bit of bad timing on that one, as Lelouch [[PowerIncontinence lost control over his mind control powers]] at ''[[DiabolusExMachina that exact moment]]''.

--->'''Frasier''': How was I supposed to know she would go so far?\\

* A plot point in ''Film/TwelveAngryMen'': The defendant was overheard yelling "IllKillYou!" to the victim, who later ended up stabbed to death. RogueJuror #8 points out that this doesn't necessarily prove the defendant was the murderer, as anyone might say something like that in a fit of anger. To prove the point, [[spoiler:Juror 3 later becomes so angry at 8 that ''he'' yells "I'll kill you!", to which 8 retorts, "[[ArmorPiercingQuestion You don’t really mean you’ll kill me, do you?]]"

People routinely say things they do not mean. Swearing to kill someone or wishing some horrible fate would befall them is usually a harmless way of venting steam.

Sometimes a character may think he is speaking to himself, but unbeknownst to him someone is listening, and ready to act on his wishes. Alternatively, a character in company may speak in hyperbole, thinking no sane person would actually do it. He could be [[LiteralMinded fatally wrong]] on that point. Or there might be someone insane around.

Subtrope of BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor and PoorCommunicationKills. Remember that asking for things you do not want to happen is TemptingFate. See LiteralGenie and JackassGenie for deliberately misinterpreted requests. See IWasJustJoking for cases where someone else takes a hyperbolic statement seriously but doesn't act on it (usually because the speaker explains that he didn't really mean what he'd said).

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rhetorical_request_blunder_3.jpg]]

!!Examples

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Comic Strip]]
* In [[https://www.gocomics.com/barneyandclyde/2016/05/13 this]] strip from ''ComicStrip/BarneyAndClyde'', Pillsbury Pharmaceuticals' SarcasmBlind R&D team makes pill bottles more difficult to open in response to Barney's "Could we make it more difficult to open?"

* In chapter 15 of ''FanFic/MakeAWish'' Harry asks for either something to kill his hangover headache or something to kill himself, he doesn't care which. A few minutes later, when the professor brings a drink that 'would kill a herd of elephants':

* Lilly the Genie in ''ThreeWishes'' interprets "I wish I was the fastest pegasus in Equestria! Wait, wait! Scratch that!" as two wishes.

-->'''[[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom Shinmyoumaru]]''': SEIJAAAA!!\\

* In ''FanFic/WhyAmICrying'', Apple Bloom wishes on a shooting star for something bad to happen to her enemy Diamond Tiara. However, instead of something like a prank or bad luck, Diamond gets killed in a carriage accident, leading Apple Bloom to [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone go on a massive guilt trip]]. [[spoiler: Subverted when she finds out that Diamond died before the time she made the wish.]]

[[folder:Film]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* In ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'', Yosuke signs up the girls of the party for the school festival's beauty pageant without their consent, thus angering them, since they aren't allowed to back out even if they didn't choose to sign up. The next day, Yosuke finds out that he, the PlayerCharacter and Kanji have all been signed up for the crossdressing pageant, at least partly as retaliation. He confronts Chie over this, but eventually submits to it.
-->'''Yosuke''': We all end up in the same boat, without our consent... What kinda joke is this...?
-->'''Chie''': Uhh... the exact same joke you pulled on us!

* ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' has this:
--> ''' Admiral Emm''': Go ahead and pull them apart.\\
''' Admiral Emm''': ...By which I mean "separate them from each other, but keep them individually intact."\\
''' 'Kweng''': Oooh. I wish you'd said that to start with, Ma'am.\\
''' 'Kweng''': It's okay. I still have all of the pieces.
** Lt. Ventura later [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2011-10-11 invoked this]] by suckering [[spoiler:Max Haluska]] into what can be interpreted as giving an AI the order to give her backdoor access -- which it did, because his hack left it too dumb to care about intent or anything else.
---> '''Para Ventura''': Sometimes the back door is "you're an idiot".

---> '''Tailor Bot''': If you had a big bag rolled up inside you, how quickly could you climb inside it?

[[folder:Web Original]]

-->'''Epic Voice Guy''': [You beat the game?] Well, good for you! Let's see you beat it with a ''VideoGame/RockBand'' controller, then we'll talk!\\

'''Epic Voice Guy''': Okay, um... wow.

* The [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Warner Bros.]] cartoon "The Hardships Of Miles Standish" has an elderly gentleman telling the story of Miles' courtship of Priscilla in pilgrim days to his grandson. He tops it with "If that ain't the truth, I hope I get struck by lightning!" He does, and as he's singed, clinging to a beam from the roof, [[NoFourthWall he turns to us]] and says "Well, anyway, that's the way ''I'' heard it!" (which in turn is a ShoutOut to the then popular radio sitcom ''Radio/FibberMcGeeAndMolly'' where, OncePerEpisode, a character called the "Old Timer" would show up, with his CatchPhrase being "That's ''not'' the way I heard it!")

* The apocryphal story of UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte sneezing as he was reviewing some prisoners and saying "tuez les tous" (kill them all) which is somewhat close to the sound one actually makes when sneezing (atchoo) and was possibly interrupted mid sentence giving something like "tu es...atchoo!" (you are atchoo!). The more well-known story (albeit also totally apocryphal) goes like this: some zealous soldier heard a flu-ridden Napoleon saying "Ma sacrée toux!" (My bloody cough!) and interpreted it as the homophone "Massacrez tout!" (Slaughter everything!).[[note]]However, only the "accident" part is apocryphal. The "ordering them all killed" part was sadly true, Bonaparte having let his anger override his pragmatism on that day.[[/note]]

* It's a common claim of UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler apologists that UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust was this. As in, his subordinates, having read ''Literature/MeinKampf'' and knowing how he felt about Jews, decided it would be a nice favor to him if they rounded up and killed all the Jews in Europe, while he was [[CaptainOblivious none the wiser]]. The idea comes from the book [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler%27s_War ''Hitler's War'']], which not only had its own counter-book, but after a libel suit in court, said counter-book was proven true ''in a court of law''.
** While Hitler was hardly oblivious, the Holocaust being intended as a favor to him was real enough, which gives the lie to so very many of the lower-level Nazis' later claims that they were JustFollowingOrders. Hitler didn't give his underlings a lot of specific orders, and he didn't have to; his officers mostly just instructed their minions to "work toward Hitler" i.e. do whatever they thought he would want them to do for him. That the Holocaust proved to be their very accurate assessment of what he wanted absolves neither him nor them of their atrocities.

[[quoteright:297:[[Webcomic/YetAnotherFantasyGamerComic https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cthier_saves_us.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:297:Ch'thier is merciful.]]

* In ''Manga/AhMyGoddess'', there's a non-death related example in the beginning. Keiichi makes a wish that he didn't think would really be granted - to have a Goddess like Belldandy, whom he just met, stay with him forever.

* In an example that's borderline subversion, an issue of ''{{Deadpool}}'' features the eponymous nut-case kidnapped by the X-Men after he attempted to kill an anti-mutant crusader on national television. Domino hears Cyclops wishing that someone would take Deadpool "out of the picture". Fearing that Wolverine will kill him, she releases Deadpool from captivity. Cue Wolverine telling her that he was just going to take Deadpool with him on a secret mission to China till things cool down... but now that he's on the loose, he might now ''have'' to kill him.

** [[spoiler: It is eventually revealed that the assassination attempt on Bran is this. King Robert mentioned how it would be better if Bran were simply put out of his misery after his injury. Prince Joffrey, having heard this, steals one of his father's knives and commissions a killer to do the deed.]]

** God would occasionally invoke this when He wanted to teach His people a lesson. Such as the time the Israelites were too frightened to conquer Canaan, even with God on their side, and declared that they wished they'd died in the desert rather than face this battle. So God lead them in circles in the desert until every man who had said that had actually died in the desert. In another case, the general Jephthah declared that if God brought him victory in battle, he would sacrifice the first thing he saw at his home when he returned as thanks. The first thing he saw was his own daughter (it is disputed whether he literally sacrificed her or if she was sent to work as a temple maiden and therefore made unmarriable, as God was generally very much against HumanSacrifice). Even today many Christians will caution against swearing an oath to God unless you really, ''really'' mean what you say.

* In ''Series/TrueBlood'', when Tara tells [[spoiler:Maryanne]] to leave her and Eggs out of the shenanigans, she retorts that Tara was the one who summoned her. The exorcism that Tara thought was a fake turned out to be a real...maenad summoning spell? Something along those lines, anyway.

** Frasier once makes an offhand reference to Bebe that a part of him hopes that Roz won't get a radio show slot she's going for so that she can still be his producer. Bebe takes this as a request for her to sabotage Roz's audition (maintaining the belief that he had asked for it even while he insists he didn't). Roz doesn't take his slip up well.

* In ''Theatre/RichardII'', Bolingbroke (aka Theatre/HenryIV) says, "Have I no friend will rid me of this living fear?" and Exton interprets this as an order to kill the already defeated King Richard. Henry develops a serious GuiltComplex about this and tries to [[TheAtoner atone]] [[ValuesDissonance by launching a crusade]].
* In ''Theatre/TheNormanConquests'' by Alan Ayckbourn, Ruth is amazed at the monumental emotional denseness, of Tom, a veterinarian who is NotGoodWithPeople. She tells him she would like to strip off all her clothes, dance naked on the grass, and then hurl him down and make love to him, just to see his reaction. Tom takes this quite literally and later solemnly informs his girlfriend Annie that Ruth has been harboring a secret passion for him.

''' Admiral Emm''': ...By which I mean "seperate them from each other, but keep them individually intact."\\

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Homerpalooza", Homer becomes a carnival freak who withstands cannonballs. But he gets urged by [[OpenHeartDentistry a veterinarian]] to stop otherwise it will kill him.

Particularly moral characters may say ItsAllMyFault after the deed is done. Compare IWishedYouWereDead. May be carried out by a PoisonousFriend. BluntMetaphorsTrauma or being SarcasmBlind might lead to this. See also IrrevocableOrder. Not to be confused with RhetoricalQuestionBlunder.

* The apocryphal story of UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte sneezing as he was reviewing some prisoners and saying "tuez les tous" (kill them all) which is somewhat close to the sound one actually makes when sneezing (atchoo) and was possibly interrupted mid sentence giving something like "tu es...atchoo!" (you are atchoo!). The more well-known story (albeit also totally apocryphal) goes like this: some zealous soldier heard a flu-ridden Napoleon saying "Ma sacrée toux!" (My bloody cough!) and interpreted it as the homophone "Massacrez tout!" (Slaughter everything!).

* In ''[[OhGod Oh God! You Devil]]'', failed musician Bobby Sheldon, at the end of his rope following yet another boring, low-paying, dead-end gig, says aloud to himself, "I'd sell my soul to make it in this business". Unfortunately for him, the Devil has a habit of noticing when people say things like that.

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12562072/30/Harry-Potter-and-the-Daft-Morons Harry Potter and the Daft Morons]]'' Augusta uses this to try to excuse not stopping or reporting Algernon's attempts to scare Neville into manifesting accidental magic.

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12562072/30/Harry-Potter-and-the-Daft-Morons Harry Potter and the Daft Morons]]'' Frank calls Augusta on the carpet and she uses this to try to excuse not stopping or reporting Algernon's attempts to scare Neville into manifesting accidental magic.

* In chapter 15 of ''Make a Wish'', a ''Franchise/HarryPotter'' fanfiction, Harry asks for either something to kill his hangover headache or something to kill himself, he doesn't care which. A few minutes later, when the professor brings a drink that 'would kill a herd of elephants': "You do know I was being sarcastic about the whole killing myself thing right?" Harry asked. "Yes," the Professor nodded nervously. "Of course I did, I'll be right back with the potion. I just need to . . . take it out of the room for a few minutes before I give it to you."

* In ''FanFic/WhyAmICrying'', Apple Bloom wishes on shooting star and for something bad to happen to her enemy Diamond Tiara. However, instead of something like a prank or bad luck, Diamond gets killed in a carriage accident, leading Apple Bloom to [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone go on a massive guilt trip]]. [[spoiler: Subverted when she finds out that Diamond died before the time she made the wish.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'', this is the downfall of the ancient Thanagarians of whom Hawkgirl and Hawkman are supposed to be the reincarnations: Upon discovering his wife's infidelity with John Stewart's counterpart, Katar Hol hyperbolizes that he wishes they were dead. When the vizier takes this as a literal order and carries it out, Katar commits suicide in despair.