History Main / SharpshooterFallacy

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---> [[LemonyNarrator Author's Note]]: The astute reader will notice that Ryouga Hibiki has what can best be described as a somewhat unusual logic system. Rather than going from facts to conclusion, one starts at the conclusion and jams the facts around it. And in the minds of [[NeverMyFault Ryouga Hibiki]] and [[MilesGloriosus Tatewaki Kunou]], we all know what the conclusion is.

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* {{Discussed}} in ''Film/{{Pi}}'', when Sol criticizes Max for obsessing over the number 216 (because that's the amount of digits on the number that his theory has spewed up). He says that Max will soon see 216 everywhere he looks because he wants to see it, lowering himself from mathematician to numerologist. The two groups of antagonists of the story believe that the number will somehow allow them to manipulate (not control, ''manipulate'') the stock market and is the true name of God, respectively--[[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane and the film implies that they are either totally crazy, are right about something there, or just happen to be both.]]
* In a darkly comical moment from ''Film/TheBeastmaster'', a villainous pagan priest employs this kind of argument to legitimize the [[HumanSacrifice child sacrifice]] he was performing, which got interrupted when the hero's hawk swooped in and carried off the child he was about to sacrifice. Pointing after the bird as it flies out of sight, he declares "See? I was right! Ogg wants your children!"

[[folder:{{Literature}}]]

* ''Literature/TheIlluminatusTrilogy'', being heavily influenced by UsefulNotes/{{Discordianism}}, further deconstructs this. After playing up the significance of the Law of Fives throughout the book, Hagbard Celine then proceeds to demolish it by explaining it as an example of this trope, reinforced by intellectual pareidolia. He goes even further, explaining how even the number five is merely an accident of nature: "If humans were born with six fingers instead of five, we'd be talking about a 'Law of Sixes'".

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* In ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'', Morte mentions the RuleOfThree, a popular underlying principle of the Multiverse. He then criticizes it and explains that if you ascribe importance to any number, you're bound to find evidence for it. It's also a good example of the [[UsefulNotes/LogicalFallacies Fallacy Fallacy]]. TabletopGame/{{Planescape}} is a setting which runs quite literally on ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve, and the planes themselves warp in response to belief. In one case, it's so strong that a man is convinced he does not exist -- and stops existing! As a consequence, many people believing in the rule of three is evidence that the rule of three is real in that setting... and if it wasn't before it is now.

[[folder:WesternAnimation]]

* This was a fairly common way people joked about the release date of a ''VideoGame/HalfLife 3''. By using this trope and a hearty dose of exaggeration people would come up with really bizarre and sometimes hilarious reasons for the prior mentioned game's reveal. For example, if {{UsefulNotes/Steam}} was having a sale for 10% off games released by Creator/SquareEnix, Square Enix has 10 letters, 10% of 10 is 1. ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI 1'' was released in 1987. ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII'' was released in 1990, and [[MissingStepsPlan if you add 2 years]] from when ''Final Fantasy III'' came out, you get 1992. Uranium is element number 92, which is radioactive and has a [[TitleDrop half-life.]]

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* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' has Ronaldo Fryman. He eats, breathes, and sleeps this fallacy. Through it he sees symbolism and messages in everything. He believes in all kinds of strange conspiracies even for the kind of universe he lives in. Doubles as a case of IJustWantToBeSpecial given that in the earlier episodes, when briefly brought to his senses he sadly remarks that he isn't at the center of anything and takes a TenMinuteRetirement from writing his blog about paranormal events in Beach City.

* Displayed by apologists for UsefulNotes/JosephMcCarthy such as Ann Coulter, who claim that the Venona intercepts declassified in 1995 show that [=McCarthy=] was quite right. In fact, the Venona intercepts only mention one of [=McCarthy=]'s accusees, Mary Jane Keeney,[[note]]The rest of the intercepts concern Alger Hiss and the atomic spies, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Neither case involved "Tailgunner Joe".[[/note]] and not even for what [=McCarthy=] accused her of. [=McCarthy=] said she was a Communist Party member... which distracted from the fact that she was ''an actual GRU spy''. This is akin to the fallacy insofar as [=McCarthy=]'s supporters claim that the facts that he accused Keeney and she was guilty of spying (the only person called before [=McCarthy=] who was[[note]]Keeney's husband, Philip, was also a spy, but [=McCarthy=] didn't interrogate him.[[/note]]) show he was right; in fact, it shows he had no idea what he was doing and found Keeney mostly by dumb luck... and even then he didn't catch her and might have even derailed real inquiries into her, since her misdeeds were only found out long after she died. Nice job, "Tailgunner".

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-->-- ''[[https://www.youtube.com/user/OcarinaSenpai OcarinaSenpai's]]'' comment on "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sefx7-xJYc8&spfreload=10 Fascinating Metroid Theories]]"

* Used in a Red Bull commercial where {{William Tell|ing}} has a shaky hand, so his son gives him Red Bull to sharpen the mind and the body. Tell then realizes he should shoot the apple, ''then'' put it on his son's head.

* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb''. OWCA begins to suspect that Phineas is working for Doofenshmirtz because when they took sound bytes of his voice and played them back in a completely random order, they got a few sentences about how he wanted to help Doofenshmirtz take over the tri-state area.
* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' has Ronaldo Fryman. He eats, breathes, and sleeps this fallacy. Through it he sees symbolism and messages in everything. He believes in all kinds of strange conspiracies even for the kind of universe he lives in. Doubles as a case of IJustWantToBeSpecial given that in the earlier episodes, when briefly brought to his senses he sadly remarks that he isn't at the center of anything and takes a TenMinuteRetirement from writing his blog about Paranormal events in Beach City.

* In ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'', Morte mentions the RuleOfThree, a popular underlying principle of the Multiverse. He then criticizes it and explains that if you ascribe importance to any number, you're bound to find evidence for it. It's also a good example of the FallacyFallacy. TabletopGame/{{Planescape}} is a setting which runs quite literally on ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve, and the planes themselves warp in response to belief. In one case, it's so strong that a man is convinced he does not exist -- and stops existing! As a consequence, many people believing in the rule of three is evidence that the rule of three is real in that setting... and if it wasn't before it is now.

* In VideoGame/{{Portal}}, in a parody of the scientific data dredging version, one of the Fact Sphere's [[InsistentTerminology "facts"]] is:

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sharpshooter_fallacy.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:It's easy to say you hit the bullseye if you draw it after you fire the arrows.]]

* Displayed by apologists for UsefulNotes/JosephMcCarthy such as Ann Coulter, who claim that the Venona intercepts declassified in 1995 show that [=McCarthy=] was quite right. In fact, the Venona intercepts only mention one of [=McCarthy=]'s accusees, Mary Jane Keeney,[[note]]The rest of the intercepts concern Alger Hiss and the atomic spies, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Neither case involved "Tailgunner Joe".[[/note]] and not even for what [=McCarthy=] accused her of. [=McCarthy=] said she was a Communist Party member ... which distracted from the fact that she was ''an actual GRU spy''. This is akin to the fallacy insofar as [=McCarthy=]'s supporters claim that the facts that he accused Keeney and she was guilty of spying (the only person called before [=McCarthy=] who was[[note]]Keeney's husband, Philip, was also a spy, but [=McCarthy=] didn't interrogate him.[[/note]]) show he was right; in fact, it shows he had no idea what he was doing and found Keeney mostly by dumb luck... and even then he didn't catch her and might have even derailed real inquiries into her, since her misdeeds were only found out long after she died. Nice job, "Tailgunner".

''The first three words he says in this video are 'Outside of Mario'''\\
'''Outside of Mario' has three O's''\\

'''Illuminati Triangle' has four I's.''\\

->''Once again, [=TheGamerFromMars=] proves he is illuminati.''
->''The first three words he says in this video are 'Outside of Mario'''
->'''Outside of Mario' has three O's''
->''A polo mint only has one O''
->''A polo mint has no physical centre of mass.''
->''Midnight Mass is the mass held on Midnight at Christmas Eve.''
->''And what day is it today? That's right - Christmas Eve.''
->''But there's more, EVE and Adam were the supposed first humans on the Earth.''
->''Earth is planet. It is also the THIRD planet in our solar system, note there are three points in the illuminati Triangle.''
->'''Illuminati Triangle' has four I's.''
->''The fourth planet in our solar system is Mars.''
->''[=TheGamerFromMARS=] - coincidence? I think not.''
->''[=TheGamerFromMars=] is illuminati confirmed.''
-->-- ''[[https://www.youtube.com/user/OcarinaSenpai OcarinaSenpai's]]'' comment on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sefx7-xJYc8&spfreload=10 Fascinating Metroid Theories]]

* The fine-tuning argument saying the universe has been designed for life is sometimes criticized as this. For instance, critics note that there appears to be very ''little'' life in the universe overall. In fact, one could claim the universe has been designed for other things (such as black holes) that appear to be more numerous, by this logic. {{Parodied|Trope}} with the "Puddle argument" by Creator/DouglasAdams in which a puddle expounds on how the hole he finds himself in was perfectly designed for him ... just before it dries up.
* There's an essay claiming that there are surprisingly many coincidences between UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln and UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy that perfectly demonstrates this. It claims that the coincidences are that they were elected President of the US a hundred years apart and first elected to the House of Representatives a hundred years apart. They both were shot on a Friday, have seven letters in their last name, shot in the back of the head, etc. They were succeeded by men named Johnson who were born a hundred years apart and had six letters in each of their respective first names. It completely ignores the lack of coincidences elsewhere (Lincoln was born in 1809 and died in 1865, Kennedy was born in 1917 and died in 1963; Lincoln was born poor, Kennedy rich; etc.) and all the big differences like how UsefulNotes/AndrewJohnson never won a term in his own right while UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson won a LandslideElection, or how Lincoln was killed indoors with a handgun at point-blank range by one member of a whole conspiracy against him, while Kennedy was killed with a rifle outdoors from hundreds of feet away by a lone gunman.[[note]]At least [[WhoShotJFK as far as we know.]][[/note]] They also had a 1 in 12 chance of dying in the same month and we find no coincidence there: Lincoln was killed in April, Kennedy in November. Some of the things in this essay are just plain false, like how it claims Lincoln had a secretary named Kennedy, when there's no evidence of his existence. A wonderfully detailed full rebuttal is [[https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/linkin-kennedy/ here.]] Even looking at their [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy Wikipedia]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln entries]], they only have '''two''' of the same categories (them being Presidents and them being assassinated Presidents). They had different political parties, different religious beliefs, born in different states, different occupations before becoming President, the list goes on and on. Some people have tried to expand on this list to make the case stronger, but it's still just adding more trivial things (e.g. Lincoln and Kennedy were both rushed to some place with the initials PH) and ignoring even more differences, like how they died in different states, elected to a different number of terms, etc.

* Displayed by apologists for UsefulNotes/JosephMcCarthy such as Ann Coulter, who claim that the Venona intercepts declassified in 1995 show that [=McCarthy=] was quite right. In fact, the Venona intercepts only mention one of [=McCarthy=]'s accusees, Mary Jane Keeney,[[note]]The rest of the intercepts concern Alger Hiss and the atomic spies, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Neither case involved "Tailgunner Joe".[[/note]] and not even for what [=McCarthy=] accused her of. [=McCarthy=] said she was a Communist Party member ... which distracted from the fact that she was ''an actual GRU spy''. This is akin to the fallacy insofar as [=McCarthy=]'s supporters claim that the facts that he accused Keeney and she was guilty of spying (the only person called before [=McCarthy=] who was[[note]]Keeney's husband, Philip, was also a spy, but [=McCarthy=] didn't interrogate him.[[/note]]) show he was right; in fact, it shows he had no idea what he was doing and found Keeney mostly by dumb luck ... and even then he didn't catch her and might have derailed real inquiries into her, since her misdeeds were only found out long after she died. Nice job, "Tailgunner"...

* Similarly, interpretations of the metaphorical elements of UsefulNotes/{{Nostradamus}}' prophecies may be seen as examples of this fallacy. There have been documentary programs on Nostradamus' prophecies where the proponents of Nostradamus' prescience do things like add and subtract numbers or alter letters in order to interpret things he wrote as referencing WWII. People have also pointed out that it's strange how Nostradamus' prophecies only seem to be understood to apply to something after the event has happened, which is also indicative of how this trope ties into ConfirmationBias. Nostradamus was a genius who was able to predict the future, yet no one predicted WWII from his writings. After WWII, people went back over his works and went to great lengths to prove to themselves that Nostradamus had predicted it. In reality, the passages could be interpreted or twisted to be applicable to anything one desired. Of the future predictions Nostradamus supposedly made, most have proven laughably wrong. One example: ''Film/TheManWhoSawTomorrow'', a documentary released in 1981, included such "predictions" as WorldWarIII breaking out in the 1990s. A remake from 1991 "corrected" these predictions to reflect then-current events, and wisely dropped most. There are also many predictions supposedly made by Nostradamus that are entirely fake circulating on the Internet. Even worse is the fact that Nostradamus wrote his Quatrains (from which the "prophecies" are taken) in an obscure mix of French and Latin that is very hard to translate. This makes just what if anything he actually predicted difficult to say, and allows all kinds of leeway for translations which fit what the translator wants.

** {{Parodied|Trope}} in [[http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/nostalgia-critic/16502-end-of-days the Nostalgia Critic's review]] of End of Days.

* There's an essay claiming that there are surprisingly many coincidences between UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln and UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy that perfectly demonstrates this. It claims that the coincidences are that they were elected President of the US a hundred years apart and first elected to the House of Representatives a hundred years apart. They both were shot on a Friday, have seven letters in their last name, shot in the back of the head, etc. They were succeeded by men named Johnson who were born a hundred years apart and had six letters in each of their respective first names. It completely ignores the lack of coincidences elsewhere (Lincoln was born in 1809 and died in 1865, Kennedy was born in 1917 and died in 1963; Lincoln was born poor, Kennedy rich; etc.). They ignore all the big differences like how UsefulNotes/AndrewJohnson never won a term in his own right while UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson won a LandslideElection. Lincoln was killed indoors with a handgun at point-blank range. Kennedy was killed with a rifle outdoors hundreds of feet away. They also had a 1 in 12 chance of dying in the same month and we find no coincidence there. Lincoln was killed in April. Kennedy was killed in November. Some of the things in this essay are just plain false, like how it claims Lincoln had a secretary named Kennedy, when there's no evidence of his existence. A wonderfully detailed full rebuttal is [[https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/linkin-kennedy/ here.]] Even looking at their [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy Wikipedia]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln entries]], they only have '''two''' of the same categories (them being Presidents and them being assassinated Presidents). They had different political parties, different religious beliefs, born in different states, different occupations before becoming President, the list goes on and on. Some people have tried to expand on this list to make the case stronger, but it's still just adding more trivial things (i.e. Lincoln and Kennedy were both rushed to some place with the initials PH) and ignoring even more differences, like how they died in different states, elected to a different number of terms, etc.
* This was a fairly common way people joked about the release date of a certain [[VideoGame/HalfLife popular series's missing third entry.]] By using this trope and a hearty dose of exaggeration people would come up with really bizarre and sometimes hilarious reasons for the prior mentioned game's reveal. For example, if {{UsefulNotes/Steam}} was having a sale for 10% off games released by {{Creator/SquareEnix}}, {{Creator/SquareEnix}} has 10 letters, 10% of 10 is 1. Final Fantasy 1 was released in 1987. Final Fantasy 3 was released in 1990, and if you add 2 years from when Final fantasy 3 came out, you get 1992. Uranium is element number 92, which is radioactive and has a [[TitleDrop half-life.]]

* There's an essay claiming that there are surprisingly many coincidences between UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln and UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy that perfectly demonstrates this. It claims that the coincidences are that they were elected President of the US a hundred years apart and first elected to the House of Representatives a hundred years apart. They both were shot on a Friday, have seven letters in their last name, shot in the back of the head, etc. They were succeeded by men named Johnson who were born a hundred years apart and had six letters in each of their respective first names. It completely ignores the lack of coincidences elsewhere (Lincoln was born in 1809 and died in 1865, Kennedy was born in 1917 and died in 1963; Lincoln was born poor, Kennedy rich; etc.). They ignore all the big differences like how UsefulNotes/AndrewJohnson never won a term in his own right while UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson won a LandslideElection. Lincoln was killed indoors with a handgun at point-blank range. Kennedy was killed with a rifle outdoors hundreds of feet away. They also had a 1 in 12 chance of dying in the same month and we find no coincidence there. Lincoln was killed in April. Kennedy was killed in November. Some of the things in this essay are just plain false, like how it claims Lincoln had a secretary named Kennedy, when there's no evidence of his existence. A wonderfully detailed full rebuttal is [[https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/linkin-kennedy/ here.]] Even looking at their [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy Wikipedia]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln entries]], they only have '''two''' of the same categories (them being Presidents and them being assassinated Presidents). They had different political parties, different religious beliefs, born in different states, different occupations before becoming President, the list goes on and on.

--> Cell phones will not give you cancer. Only hepatitis.

* There's an essay claiming that there are surprisingly many coincidences between UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln and UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy that perfectly demonstrates this. It claims that the coincidences are that they were elected President of the US a hundred years apart and first elected to the House of Representatives a hundred years apart. They both were shot on a Friday, have seven letters in their last name, shot in the back of the head, etc. They were succeeded by men named Johnson who were born a hundred years apart and had six letters in each of their respective first names. It completely ignores the lack of coincidences elsewhere (Lincoln was born in 1809 and died in 1865, Kennedy was born in 1917 and died in 1963; Lincoln was born poor, Kennedy rich; etc.). They ignore all the big differences like how UsefulNotes/AndrewJohnson never won a term in his own right while UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson won a LandslideElection. Lincoln was killed indoors with a handgun at point-blank range. Kennedy was killed with a rifle outdoors hundreds of feet away. They also had a 1 in 12 chance of dying in the same month and we find no coincidence there. Lincoln was killed in April. Kennedy was killed in November. Some of the things in this essay are just plain false, like how it claims Lincoln had a secretary named Kennedy, when there's no evidence of his existence. A wonderfully detailed full rebuttal is [[https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/linkin-kennedy/ here.]]

* In ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'', Morte mentions the RuleOfThree, a popular underlying principle of the Multiverse. He then criticizes it and explains that if you ascribe importance to any number, you're bound to find evidence for it. It's also a good example of the FallacyFallacy. TabletopGame/{{Planescape}} is a setting which runs quite literally on ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve, and the planes themselves warp in response to belief. In one case, it's so strong that a man is convinced he does not exist -- and stops existing! As a consequence, many people believing in the rule of three is evidence that the rule of three is real in that setting.

* In ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'', Morte mentions the "Rule of Three", a popular underlying principle of the Multiverse. He then criticizes it and explains that if you ascribe importance to any number, you're bound to find evidence for it. It's also a good example of the FallacyFallacy. TabletopGame/{{Planescape}} is a setting which runs quite literally on ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve, and the planes themselves warp in response to belief. In one case, it's so strong that a man is convinced he does not exist -- and stops existing! As a consequence, many people believing in the RuleOfThree[=s=] is evidence that the RuleOfThree[=s=] is real in that setting.

* The fallacy is mentioned in-universe in one episode of ''Series/{{NUMB3RS}}'' by Charlie after Megan mentions that a school that recently had a playground cave-in also seems to have an unusually high rate of cancer among students; he suggests that the cancer rate only seems significant because they're actively looking for problems. It's {{Subverted|Trope}} a few moments later when they find evidence suggesting there actually is a connection between the two (which ultimately turns out to be the case).