History TemptingFate / LiveACtionTV

* ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000''. Tom Servo's favorite riff. "It can't [blank]! Doodly-doodly-doo! It can [blank]!"
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' is pretty guilty of this, usually in combination with GilliganCut. Find me someone in the series who actually ''hasn't'' done this, and I'll be impressed. Xander seemed to tend to get the worse of it though.

* Evidently JossWhedon likes this trope (among many others). Any time someone in ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' thinks things are going smooth... they're not. LampshadeHanging by GenreSavvy characters completely fails to avert the trouble -- or the comments.

* The teaser of the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "Our Man Bashir" ends with Garak saying "What could possibly go wrong?" while in a Bond-esque holoprogram with Bashir, which is just funny. (And, yes, something does go very wrong. It's the holodeck; what do you expect?)
* In the first episode of Season 5 from ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', Worf and Gowron have a Bath'leth duel, which is stopped. Gowron comments that Worf missed his chance to slay him and won't get another. Near the very end of the LAST season, Worf and Gowron duel again, and, you guess, Worf slays Gowron.

* ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'', "The Council": The crew have successfully infiltrated a Sphere and reached its redundant memory core, whereupon Reed says: "It's practically gift-wrapped." Cue shot of Glowing Mecha-Tentacle of Death...
* In ''Series/BabylonFive'':

* In episode 8 of ''{{Primeval}}'', a giant worm comes down from the ceiling and latches onto Connor's head immediately after he comments that they are now safe.
* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' Christmas special ''The Voyage of the Damned'', the villain [[spoiler:[[InvokedTrope ''tries'' to tempt fate]] by naming the interstellar cruise liner he means to scuttle the ''Titanic''. It doesn't work nearly as well as he'd hoped, mainly thanks to the Doctor.]]

* Cory Matthews from ''BoyMeetsWorld'' always invokes this trope. He even lampshaded this in the episode where he joined the wrestling team, saying he wouldn't be asked to wrestle this season just so he can prove what he says won't happen, will happen. Next thing you know, he is asked to wrestle in his first match.
* Scott from ''Series/TeenWolf'' really shouldn't correct his loony coach. Especially when said coach is also the Economics teacher:

* Parodied in ''TheYoungOnes''. At the end of the first episode an airliner pilot cheerfully remarks, "Gosh, I really hope we don't have a crash."

* In ''TheWestWing'' episode "Election Night", Toby makes frequent neurotic attempts to prevent the other campaign staff from tempting fate by behaving as if they've won before the results come in:

* In ''Series/LittleMosqueOnThePrairie'', Yasser reassures Amaar that the open house is going on "without an itch". The ChekhovsGun-ish electric box he has been tasked to fix proceeds to blow up.
* Jeremy Clarkson traditionally introduces new ''TopGear'' Challenges by describing the task, then looking into the camera and saying "How hard can it be?" HilarityEnsues.

* {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in ''Series/{{Angel}}'' episode "Spin the Bottle" when Lorne produces the {{Phlebotinum}}:

* Often used on ''Series/{{Lost}}'', especially in tandem with the AnswerCut. For example, Juliet is worried that Ben will react badly to her affair with Goodwin. Goodwin replies, "What's Ben gonna do?" Cut to Ben sending Goodwin to his death infiltrating the tail section.
* There is hardly any ''MarriedWithChildren'' episode where this trope isn't invoked by at least one character. The episode "Luck of the Bundy's" even establishes that a Bundy must never admit that he is lucky because an equal amount of bad luck is just waiting around the corner for him to be TemptingFate. The result of that episode? The police "confiscates" all the money Al has been winning at poker so far, he gets arrested for grand theft auto (because all cars he also won were stolen), Bud's college dorm burns down forcing him to return back home, Kelly has a major stunt accident and is uninsured, and Al is getting hit by a lightning strike from the only cloud in miles, which is hovering above his house.

* Lampshaded in ''GreysAnatomy'':

* Played straight and then instantly lampshaded in ''Series/{{Farscape}}'':

* Played straight in ''{{Blackadder}}''. Blackadder has been convicted of a crime at his court-marshal and is going to be shot the next morning:

* ''Series/TheColbertReport'' has an excellent one [[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1191559/Obama-orders-TV-funnyman-Stephen-Colbert-military-buzz-cut-entertain-troops.html when you think about it:]]

* ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Reimagined}}''. The Cylons are evacuating New Caprica amid StuffBlowingUp. They say Baltar can come along too, if he chooses.

* On ''TheDrewCareyShow,'' Drew shares the elevator with Larry after he has been promised a promotion as long as he reaches the boardroom in thirty minutes. When Larry congratulates him, he says that he doesn't want to talk about it for fearing of jinxing things.

* In ''Series/RobinHood'': Robin tells Much about his secret engagement to Marian and comments: "Let's hope we live to enjoy it." [[spoiler:They don't.]]
* Remember that "I deserve a break" line at the start of the article? It came from Lieutenant Scott, on ''Series/StargateUniverse''. Guess what happened to him. Go ahead, I'll wait.

* Not every case of Tempting Fate has to be life or death. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h07eO0SKtUI Ask the late Peter Tomarken]], host of ''PressYourLuck''. Naturally, you want a game show host to wish good will upon the contestants, but he had no idea what they were in for when he said "We're gonna have Big Bucks today, I can feel it." Two episodes' worth (To Be Continued and all) of taping and $110,237 worth in cash and prizes later, Michael Larson made Tomarken eat his words. [[spoiler: Larson knew the fixed sequence to the game board so he knew which spaces never contained a Whammy and which ones would always offer extra spins.]]

* In the season 3 episode of ''Series/{{Chuck}}'', Emmett Milbarge is telling a man to go away or else he will hurt him... not knowing he is being rude to an assassin. Luckily for him, the assassin doesn't think killing him is worth and starts to walk away, causing Emmett to call him "Pussy". That made the assassin shoot him in the eye killing him. If Emmett didn't call him that, well, he would still be alive...

* Averted in the American version of ''QueerAsFolk''. A gay teenager is found dead in a dumpster, and everyone starts speculating that he was killed by a one-night stand. Brian deliberately tempts fate by picking up a random guy at the club that night, declaring that, "There's never been a hotter time to fuck a stranger." When Justin calls him on it, he even backs slowly away while wiggling his fingers dramatically and saying, "I'll be fine!" He's right, and nothing bad happens.
* Another aversion comes from ''MalcolmInTheMiddle'', Malcolm and Reese both participate in an illegal race-betting scheme, with Malcolm even turning to the audience to ask, with no trace of sarcasm, "WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong" One flip cut later, he's showing off the thousands of dollars he made in the scam, which apparently went off without a hitch.
* On an episode of ''The Dick Cavett Show'', 72-year-old publisher Jerome Irving Rodale, an advocate of organic farming, died of a heart attack on stage. Earlier, Rodale had made some boastful comments on his supposedly good health, and bragged, "I'm going to live to be 100, unless I'm run down by some sugar-crazed taxi driver."
* Referenced in an episode of ''Series/HowIMetYourMother''. Marshall and Lily agree to write each other "death letters" with a final goodbye and important information (bank accounts, passwords, etc.). Turns out that Marshall didn't write one, but he's planning on doing it soon. Ted and Barney assure him that there's no chance that he could suddenly drop dead before writing it. No chance at all. Marshall berates them for taking advantage of his superstitious nature, throws salt over his shoulder, knocks on wood, turns around three times and runs home to write the letter.

* An unscripted example occurs in the "Exploding Fire Extinguisher" myth on ''MythBusters.'' It looks like their big bang will take a while, so the gang starts playing charades. Tory asks, "Sounds like?" Cue StuffBlowingUp.

* On an episode of ''WheelOfFortune'', a contestant was faced with _____PS in the BonusRound. Pat quipped, "If you solve this, I'm retiring." And after a few seconds, the contestant blurted out the right answer, [[spoiler:HICCUPS]].

* In the season four finale of ''{{Friends}}'', "The One With Ross's Wedding", Ross invokes this trope as a way of dooming his upcoming wedding to Emily.

* A visitor from ''{{Warehouse 13}}'' [[{{Crossover}} visits]] ''Series/{{Eureka}}'':

* Meanwhile, ''in'' ''{{Warehouse 13}}''... asked why, when everything else is powered down, the Dark Vault still has power:

* Almost rises to the level of OnceAnEpisode on ''Series/BurnNotice''. It goes like this: one of the main characters takes a seemingly innocuous job, probably something like tailing an embezzler, finding a missing daughter, or giving an abusive husband a firm talking to. It turns out they need the help of another main character (or all of them) to do it. The first character assures the other character(s) that the job is simple, easy, will probably take barely an hour, etc. At this point, the amount of time before things go completely to hell rarely tops 5 minutes.
* On an episode of ''FamilyFortunes'' (the British adaptation of ''FamilyFeud''), a contestant gave "Over a fire" as a response to "Name a way of toasting someone." As he often did on off-the-wall answers, host Les Dennis quipped, "I tell you what, if it's up there, I'll give you the money meself!" Cue "Grill" lighting up on the board for 12 points.
* Series/HorribleHistories, "The Borgia Family" song:

* Early in the first season of Game of Thrones, as Eddard Stark is sending Jon Snow off to the Wall, he promises that the next time they meet, he'll tell him all about his mother. Oh, Ned.
* Well, we finally found out why things went to Hell in ''TheVampireDiaries'', thanks to a flash back in the third season finale which showed Elena's ''real'' first meeting with [[spoiler: Damon]], during which she gave this fateful line:

* In ''MajorCrimes'', the AfterShow to ''TheCloser'', one perp learns a lesson about asking people if they're going to shoot you: Sooner or later, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9xAHAoqC6c someone's going to answer YES!]]

* ''TheColbertReport'' has an excellent one [[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1191559/Obama-orders-TV-funnyman-Stephen-Colbert-military-buzz-cut-entertain-troops.html when you think about it:]]
-->'''StephenColbert:''' It's gonna take more than a four-star general to get me to ''cut! my! hair!''\\

* ''{{Rome}}'': There's a hilarious coda to the episode "Egeria", where the legionaries are shivering on the deck of a galley as it battles through a raging storm.

** Moments earlier, the Operative had been waiting with his fleet of Alliance ships for Serenity to break through the ion cloud. She did... followed by a fleet of reaver ships that put a very 'Oh, shit' expression on the Operative's face.

** Used in "Perfect Week", where Barney was attempting to sleep with seven women in seven days. Lily utters the phrase "perfect week", thus jinxing it. The next day, Lily gleefully points out that Barney was getting along with "third martini girl", pointing out there was no such thing as a jinx. Only for 2009 World Champion New York Yankee member Nick Swisher walked through the door and every lady in the bar oogling at him.

* Well, we finally found out why things went to Hell in ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'', thanks to a flash back in the third season finale which showed Elena's ''real'' first meeting with [[spoiler: Damon]], during which she gave this fateful line:

* ''BattlestarGalactica''. The Cylons are evacuating New Caprica amid StuffBlowingUp. They say Baltar can come along too, if he chooses.

* ''{{Undercovers}}'': A Russian is leading the Blooms through a minefield (with a mine-sniffing ''rat'', no less). He invokes the trope:

* ''MysteryScienceTheater3000''. Tom Servo's favorite riff. "It can't [blank]! Doodly-doodly-doo! It can [blank]!"

** Lampshaded in "School Hard", however:

'''Willow:''' {{What were you thinking}}? Or were you even thinking at all?\\

* In ''{{Babylon 5}}'':

** In another episode of ''{{Babylon 5}}'', Corwin makes the fatal error of saying that it's a good thing a battle ended when it did because the station couldn't take much more damage. Cue reinforcements for the enemy. Said reinforcements, however, don't make the same mistake [[BigDamnHeroes when Minbari ships arrive to protect the station and its surviving defenders from further attack]].

** The only time Hammond tempted fate and got away with it was when he had a race between a Bugatti Veryon and military jet. He lived. His words before the challenge? (paraphrased) : "If I don't stop in time, I die a horrific death and YouTube has a field day."

* Often used on ''{{Series/Lost}}'', especially in tandem with the AnswerCut. For example, Juliet is worried that Ben will react badly to her affair with Goodwin. Goodwin replies, "What's Ben gonna do?" Cut to Ben sending Goodwin to his death infiltrating the tail section.

* Lampshaded in ''GreysAnatomy'':

* In the season 3 episode of ''{{Chuck}}'', Emmett Milbarge is telling a man to go away or else he will hurt him... not knowing he is being rude to an assassin. Luckily for him, the assassin doesn't think killing him is worth and starts to walk away, causing Emmett to call him "Pussy". That made the assassin shoot him in the eye killing him. If Emmett didn't call him that, well, he would still be alive...

* Referenced in an episode of ''HowIMetYourMother''. Marshall and Lily agree to write each other "death letters" with a final goodbye and important information (bank accounts, passwords, etc.). Turns out that Marshall didn't write one, but he's planning on doing it soon. Ted and Barney assure him that there's no chance that he could suddenly drop dead before writing it. No chance at all. Marshall berates them for taking advantage of his superstitious nature, throws salt over his shoulder, knocks on wood, turns around three times and runs home to write the letter.

---> '''Russian:''' I assure you, This is safe procedure. Follow me. *'''''BOOM!'''''*

* A visitor from ''{{Warehouse 13}}'' [[{{Crossover}} visits]] ''{{Eureka}}'':

--> '''Claudia Donovan''': Yeah, the nanotech lab was impressive, the underground biosphere was off the chart, but, I dunno, this is Eureka, right? I was kinda hoping to see something ''insanely'' weird.

* Almost rises to the level of OnceAnEpisode on ''BurnNotice''. It goes like this: one of the main characters takes a seemingly innocuous job, probably something like tailing an embezzler, finding a missing daughter, or giving an abusive husband a firm talking to. It turns out they need the help of another main character (or all of them) to do it. The first character assures the other character(s) that the job is simple, easy, will probably take barely an hour, etc. At this point, the amount of time before things go completely to hell rarely tops 5 minutes.

* Lampshaded in ''[=~Grey's Anatomy~=]'':

** Cue vampires and witches and werewolves and the town's citizens beginning to drop like flies. Thanks a lot, Elena.

-->'''Peter:''' (triumphantly produces a teeny little gallows, complete in every detail)

* The teaser of the ''StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "Our Man Bashir" ends with Garak saying "What could possibly go wrong?" while in a Bond-esque holoprogram with Bashir, which is just funny. (And, yes, something does go very wrong. It's the holodeck; what do you expect?)
* In the first episode of Season 5 from ''StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', Worf and Gowron have a Bath'leth duel, which is stopped. Gowron comments that Worf missed his chance to slay him and won't get another. Near the very end of the LAST season, Worf and Gowron duel again, and, you guess, Worf slays Gowron.
** In the novelisation of the very ''first'' episode of ''StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', Odo remarks to Bashir, that: 1) he doesn't get ill, 2) ''should'' he fall ill, Bashir (or any UFP doctor) will never be able to help. Near the ''end'' of the show, Odo ''does'' get ill, and Bashir is his only hope.
* ''StarTrekEnterprise'', "The Council": The crew have successfully infiltrated a Sphere and reached its redundant memory core, whereupon Reed says: "It's practically gift-wrapped." Cue shot of Glowing Mecha-Tentacle of Death...

* Early in the first season of Game of Thrones, as Eddard Stark is sending Jon Snow off to the Wall, he promises that the next time they meet, he'll tell him all about his mother. Oh, Ned.

--> '''Cesare:''' [[OhCrap Oh, no!]]

* In episode 8 of ''Primeval'', a giant worm comes down from the ceiling and latches onto Connor's head immediately after he comments that they are now safe.

'''Xander:''' (nervously hugging his bag) Well, you guys don't ''know''...maybe this time will be different...\\

'''Willow:''' {{What were you thinking}}?

* Not every case of Tempting Fate has to be life or death. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h07eO0SKtUI Ask the late Peter Tomarken]], host of ''PressYourLuck''. Naturally, you want a game show host to wish good will upon the contestants, but he had no idea what they were in for when he said "We're gonna have Big Bucks today, I can feel it." Two episodes' worth (To Be Continued and all) of taping and $110,237 worth in cash and prizes later, Michael Larson pretty much made Tomarken eat his words. [[spoiler: Larson knew the fixed sequence to the game board so he knew which spaces never contained a Whammy and which ones would always offer extra spins.]]

* Almost rises to the level of OnceAnEpisode on ''BurnNotice''. It goes like this: one of the main characters takes a seemingly innocuous job, probably something like tailing an embezzler, finding a missing daughter, or giving an abusive husband a firm talking to. It turns out they need the help of another main character (or all of them) to do it. The first character assures the other character(s) that the job is simple, easy, will probably take barely an hour, etc. At this point, the amount of time before things go completely to hell rarely tops five minutes.

* On an episode of ''FamilyFortunes'' (the British adaptation of ''FamilyFeud''), a contestant gave "Over a fire" as a response to "Name a way of toasting someone." As he often did on off-the-wall answers, host Les Dennis quipped, "I tell you what, if it's up there, I'll give you the money meself!" Cue "Grill" lighting up on the board for 12 points.