History Main / Wishplosion

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'': In the episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1985S1E12 I of Newton]]", a physics professor is confronted with a demon who'll claim his soul if he can't find a wish he can't grant. Said demon tells the man that he's capable of doing anything, even the impossible, and he can go anywhere and is aware of all existence. The professor finally gets rid of him by putting his last wish in the form of a command: [[spoiler:"Get lost!"]]

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'': In the episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1985S1E12 I of Newton]]", a physics professor is confronted with a demon who'll claim his soul if he can't find a wish he can't grant. Said demon tells the man that he's capable of doing anything, even the impossible, and he can go anywhere and is aware of all existence. The professor finally gets rid of him by putting his last wish in the form of a command: [[spoiler:"Get lost"]].

* ''WesternAnimation/ChipNDaleRescueRangers'': When Monterey Jack becomes a genie and is captured by Fat Cat, he is forced to grant wishes for the bad guys. He tricks a ''{{mook}}'' into making a misguided wish, allowing Chip & Dale to reach the genie's lamp. They wish that none of this ever happened to reset reality.

The most benevolent form is FreeingTheGenie - this act of immense selflessness might be [[LaserGuidedKarma rewarded]] by turning a stunned and grateful former-JackassGenie into a [[AndroclesLion powerful friend and ally,]] [[MagicAIsMagicA who (depending on the system)]] may even be free to use their powers indiscriminately in your favor.

* ''WesternAnimation/ChipNDaleRescueRangers'': When Monterey Jack becomes a genie and is captured by Fat Cat, he is forced to grant wishes for the bad guys. He tricks a ''{{Mook}}'' into making a misguided wish, allowing Chip & Dale to reach the genie's lamp. They wish that none of this ever happened to reset reality.

[[folder:Film -- Animated]]

[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]

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* ''Comicbook/{{Lucifer}}'': The initial miniseries ("The Morningstar Option") revolves around a "Silent God", a former Old God that simply grants wishes -- specifically [[https://www.dictionary.com/browse/velleity velleities,]] half-hearted wishes with no intent to follow through -- [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly as a way of obtaining worship]]. Lucifer remarks that this will quickly and inevitably lead to humanity's self-destruction unless the Silent God is destroyed. [[spoiler:He solves this by drafting someone who (inadvertently) used the Silent God’s power to wish her own brother dead, and brings her to it and rips up her emotional wounds. She ends up wishing with all her heart that the God dies, which, due to the circumstances of being worded right in front of it and being a wish born of earnest desire, it has no choice but to fulfill. Lucifer couldn't do it himself because he can't desire strong enough to make the God take notice.]]
* A story in ''Journey Into Mystery'' was initially told from the POV of a genie that's been through such a situation before coming into a young master who makes selfless wishes. After making his third, he's surprised to see the genie still around. The genie then informs him that because all of his previous masters stopped after using their second wish to undo their first, he has thousands of surplus wishes left to give.
* ''ComicBook/EightBillionGenies'' is '''built''' on this trope. One day, eight billion genies materialize out of thin air to grant one wish for every person on Earth. The story follows the patrons of a small bar as they struggle to make sense of the ensuing chaos and their everchanging reality.

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* In ''Film/TheNeverendingStoryIITheNextChapter'', the hero defeats the villainess by "wishing she had a heart."... Which, since she personifies emptiness, causes her to go poof and her living crab-armor minions to explode.
* In Disney's ''Film/DarbyOGillAndTheLittlePeople'', King Brian of the leprechauns grants Darby three wishes. Darby's third wish is to save the life of his daughter by taking her place in death. King Brian tricks Darby into making an illegal fourth wish, which cancels the effects of the third wish and saves his life. His daughter is not harmed because she had already recovered by the time the third wish was canceled. Notable here that it's the wishgiver who gives the loophole out of kindness.

* A variant of this, with a ghost instead of a genie, is found in a [[http://www-usr.rider.edu/~suler/zenstory/ghost.html Zen Story]] about a man who is plagued by the ghost of his wife. She torments him by repeating the conversations that he has with his new lady-friend, word-for-word. In short, the ghost knows everything that he knows. After following a Zen master's advice, he challenges the ghost by scooping up a handful of beans and saying, "Tell me exactly how many beans there are in my hand." The ghost vanished.
* In the novel ''Literature/TheWishGiver'' by Bill Brittain, the good guy clears up all the bad wishes by basically wishing for the wishes to revert, "with no tricks." Apparently his good-heartedness combined with saying "with no tricks" made it work.
* In ''Literature/GreyKnights'', Raezazel, while trying to [[BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind take control over]] one of his intended victims, claims that he can make any wish come true, and proves so. What does the target tell him?
-->''I wish for a world where [[OurDemonsAreDifferent your kind]] cannot exist.''

* In Creator/LarryNiven's short story "Convergent Series", a mathematician sort-of accidentally summons a demon who grants him any one wish, at which point the demon will take his soul, reappearing wherever the summoning pentagram is drawn (or anywhere at all, if there is no pentagram). The mathematician freezes time outside of himself for 24 hours, spends the first few frozen minutes redrawing the pentagram, and goes about his business trying to figure out how to save his soul. Churches and houses of worship appear as empty lots to him, keeping him from getting inside holy ground where he'd be safe, so instead he does some silly things. At the end, the demon starts moving again with the rest of time, resizing to fit inside the pentagram. [[spoiler:Turns out the mathematician redrew it on the demon's fat stomach, trapping him in an endless loop where he keeps shrinking to reappear in the pentagram, then shrinking again because the pentagram shrank with him.]] The mathematician notes that this trick should keep the demon occupied long enough to find a way to fix this, somehow.
* Dutch author Creator/TaisTeng's novel ''De Ring van Ardek'' features an ArtifactOfDeath in the form of a ring that grants its bearer wishes, but at the cost of a demon named Ardek approaching closer every time it is used until he reaps your soul. At the end, the main character's shamanistic grandmother solves the problem by wishing for Ardek to become her protector--at which point Ardek's bony left arm grapples his right to prevent him from taking her soul, trapping him in a one-person SealedEvilInADuel.
* In the short story "Djinn Coffee" by Aaron Alston, published in ''Magazine/{{Dragon}}'' magazine, the protagonist has been put in charge of his evil boss's evil genie. He's been tricked into wishing that anything good he wishes for will happen to the boss instead and that he cannot wish harm to the boss, and the genie's own rules say that if he makes a wish without adding "In Solomon's name", he becomes the genie's slave in the City of Brass (and he's already seen this happen to the last guy who had the position). What does he do? [[spoiler: 1) Get his boss to agree that "drowning in wealth" is a good thing, then wish for an oil slick. 2) Get his boss to agree that anything that saves him from this is good, then wish ''to become the genie's slave in the City of Brass''.]]
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* A variant in ''Webcomic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal'' [[https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/one-wish-2 here]]. "You used your second wish to forget all the consequences of your first wish."

* One ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs1981'' short had a LiteralGenie (who doubles as a prankster trickster), first controlled by Gargamel and then by Papa Smurf. Papa orders the "Genie Meanie" to first undo all the tricks it had performed that day, and his last command to it is to stay in its bottle until it can learn to stop being mean.
* In an old ''WesternAnimation/{{Sinbad the Sailor}}'' cartoon, a genie's last wish will determine whether he is good or evil. The villains have used up the first wish, so the hero is in a quandary. Wishing the villains dead counts as evil, so how can he stop them? He wishes that "none of this ever happened", which counts as a good wish.
* Likewise, in ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'', an evil genie is thwarted by the ''villain'' wishing he had never found the genie's lamp, which results in it being lost underground.

* ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'':
** This is the way to defeat Desiree, the Wishing Ghost. When Danny originally fought her, she was too strong for him to defeat, so he made a wish that she would be imprisoned in the Fenton Thermos. He then berated himself for not realizing to do that when she first appeared.
** The second time, Danny's friend Sam, [[ItMakesSenseInContext having wished that she never met Danny, which caused him to lose his powers]], made another wish to undo the damage. Desiree [[FridgeLogic then commented]] on [[LampshadeHanging needing to stop]] granting every wish she hears as Danny imprisons her again.
* Defied in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'', where [=SpongeBob=], Squidward and Patrick are granted a wish by the Flying Dutchman before he eats them. [=SpongeBob=] wishes for the Dutchman to be a vegetarian. In return, [[LoopholeAbuse the Dutchman transforms them into fruit]].
* Prismo of ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'', being a BenevolentGenie who is (for reasons that go unexplained) forced to operate by LiteralGenie rules, straight-out tells Jake the exact wording of the wish that will fix all the shenanigans caused by Finn's previous, ill-considered wish: [[spoiler: "I wish that the Lich had wished for Finn and I to be returned home."]]

* In "I of Newton", an episode of ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'', a physics professor is confronted with a demon who'll claim his soul if he can't find a wish he can't grant. Said demon tells the man that he's capable of doing anything, even the impossible, and he can go anywhere and is aware of all existence. The professor finally gets rid of him by putting his last wish in the form of a command: [[spoiler: "Get lost."]]
* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': In the episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E38TheManInTheBottle The Man in the Bottle]]", a genie grants a man four [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor Monkey's Paw]]-type wishes. The third wish is to become the ruler of a country who can't be overthrown, so the genie turns him into Hitler at the end of World War II. The man's last wish is that all of the previously granted wishes be canceled.
* In ''Series/TimeGentlemenPlease'', the Guv is terrorised by a possibly-possessed novelty Leprechaun statue. The statue offers the Guv one wish in return for making the pub into an irish theme bar. Guv wishes the Leprechaun would do the opposite of everything he says. The implications of this statement cause the Leprechaun to blow up.

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* [[Blog/{{Things Mr Welch Is No Longer Allowed To Do In An RPG}} Mr Welch]] is officially prohibited from attempting to fuse LogicBomb and Wishplosion with the phrase "I wish you wouldn't grant this wish."
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* In ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' episode "The Man in the Bottle", a genie grants a man four [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor Monkey's Paw]] type wishes. The third wish is to become the ruler of a country who can't be overthrown, so the genie turns him into Hitler at the end of World War II. The man's last wish is that all of the previously granted wishes be canceled.

** In one of the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' parody stories, Torg is confronted with a djinn who grants two wishes to anyone, although it will try to screw up the wish as much as possible. For some reason, this always entails "randomly" turning the wisher into chocolate. The djinn mentions that should anyone survive the first wish, the second one will be much less twisted. Torg's solution? [[spoiler: "Turn Torg Potter into chocolate." But that's not really his name. Even this might not have worked if the BigBad, who had control over the genie, had not jumped at the chance and ordered the genie to do ''[[ExactWords exactly]]'' as asked.]]
** Later several of the protagonists run into demon-genies who could steal their souls at will and don't have to grant any wishes they don't want to, but like to play games by letting them try to think of wishes that will get them out. They're outwitted by [[spoiler:Aylee]] of all people, who in exchange to her soul wishes that Torg not be restrained by them in any way, which they take to mean that they won't restrain him ''within'' their own domain, but not allow him to ''leave'' (exactly as planned). Next Zoë, acting on [[spoiler:Aylee's]] instructions, pretends to try to make a wish so dreadful that they would let her go out of sheer [[ArsonMurderAndAdmiration admiration]]. She wishes that [[spoiler: blood of the innocents should rain all over their house.]] The head demon grants this with a shrug and is about to move on. [[spoiler: However, the soul of Torg's sentient sword, whose physical form is in the house, gains its [[InfinityPlusOneSword full powers]] as a weapon [[PoweredByAForsakenChild from the blood]], and Torg kills the demon with a single poke.]]

* One ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs'' short had a LiteralGenie (who doubles as a prankster trickster), first controlled by Gargamel and then by Papa Smurf. Papa orders the "Genie Meanie" to first undo all the tricks it had performed that day, and his last command to it is to stay in its bottle until it can learn to stop being mean.

* In ''Manga/InuYasha'', Kagome basically wishes [[spoiler:[[http://www.mangahere.com/manga/inuyasha/c557/18.html for the shikon no tama to]] [[http://www.mangahere.com/manga/inuyasha/c557/19.html disappear]]]]. It's granted. [[spoiler:WordOfGod is that this is the ''only'' wish that the Shikon no Tama can't pervert toward evil ends.]]

* ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'': Anyone choosing to become a MagicalGirl is granted a wish in return. For the main character, the problem isn't so much avoiding the wish having bad consequences (though they do tend to), as breaking the cycle where magical girls are all screwed from the start, and she herself either fails to save anyone by not becoming a magical girl or dooms everyone even more by doing so.

* ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'': This is how [[spoiler:the eponymous character]] simultaneously saves the universe, saves the {{Magical Girl}}s, and [[spoiler:[[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence becomes an omnipresent Goddess]]]] all with one logic-defying wish.

* In ''Film/TheNeverEndingStoryIITheNextChapter'', the hero defeats the villainess by "wishing she had a heart."... Which, since she personifies emptiness, causes her to go poof and her living crab-armor minions to explode.

* In ''Film/TheNeverEndingStory Part II'', the hero defeats the villainess by "wishing she had a heart."... Which, since she personifies emptiness, causes her to go poof and her living crab-armor minions to explode.

* Defied in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'', where [=SpongeBob=], Squidward and Patrick are granted a wish by the Flying Dutchman before he eats them. [=SpongeBob=] wishes for the Dutchman to be a vegetarian. In return, the Dutchman transforms them into fruit.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Garfield and Friends}}'' episode "Cinderella Cat" features a genie doing a Marlon Brando impression (he's a Fairy "Godfather", [[ParentalBonus get it?]]). Garfield wishes for lasagna, and the Godfather gets it from a vendor. Garfield wishes for money, and the genie gets it from a bank. Garfield tries to forego his last wish, but the genie insists, so... he wishes for a fairy god''mother'' to appear, who turns out to be the genie's wife. She promptly started berating him, and they both depart, leaving Garfield to deal with this book he found...

* Defied in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'', where Spongebob, Squidward and Patrick are granted a wish by the Flying Dutchman before he eats them. Spongebob wishes for the Dutchman to be a vegetarian. In return, the Dutchman transforms them into fruit.

** There's also a literal interpretation of [[YourHeadASplode Wishplosion]], in the form of Magical Backup. If a godparent can't grant wishes to their kids, they explode into confetti.

* An story in ''Journey Into Mystery'' was initially told from the POV of a genie that's been through such a situation before coming into a young master who makes selfless wishes. After making his third, he's surprised to see the genie still around. The genie then informs him that because all of his previous masters stopped after using their second wish to undo their first, he has thousands of surplus wishes left to give.

[[folder:Comicbooks]]

* ''Comicbook/{{Lucifer}}'': The initial miniseries ("The Morningstar Option") revolves around a "Silent God", a former Old God that simply grants wishes -- specifically [[https://www.dictionary.com/browse/velleity velleities,]] half-hearted wishes with no intent to follow through -- [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly as a way of obtaining worship]]. Lucifer remarks that this will quickly and inevitably lead to humanity's self-destruction unless the velleity is destroyed. [[spoiler:He solves this by drafting someone who (inadvertently) used the velleity's power to wish her own brother dead, and brings her to it and rips up her emotional wounds. She ends up wishing with all her heart that the velleity dies, which, due to the circumstances of being worded right in front of it and being a wish born of earnest desire, it has no choice but to fulfill. Lucifer couldn't do it himself because he can't desire strong enough to make the velleity take notice.]]

* ''Comicbook/{{Lucifer}}'': The initial miniseries ("The Morningstar Option") revolves around a "velleity", an entity that simply grants wishes -- any wishes -- [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly as a way of obtaining worship]]. Lucifer remarks that this will quickly and inevitably lead to humanity's self-destruction unless the velleity is destroyed. [[spoiler:He solves this by drafting someone who (inadvertently) used the velleity's power to wish her own brother dead, and brings her to it and rips up her emotional wounds. She ends up wishing with all her heart that the velleity dies, which, due to the circumstances of being worded right in front of it and being a wish born of earnest desire, it has no choice but to fulfill. Lucifer couldn't do it himself because he can't desire strong enough to make the velleity take notice.]]