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1->''Oh yeah. It's the best part. It's crunchy, it's explosive, it's where the muffin breaks free of the pan and sort of (makes hand motions) does its own thing. I'll tell you. That's a million dollar idea right there. Just sell the tops.''
2-->-- '''Elaine Benes''', ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'', "Muffin Tops"
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4In a work of fiction, characters often come up with a great business idea that will make them rich or get that promotion. However, by using a bit of FridgeLogic, the audience may realize that this business idea is actually terrible. The idea may display a poor sense of fashion or design, or may just ignore customer psychology or economic realities.
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6The general dubiousness of the business idea is probably a result of the fact that if the idea was any good while still being original, then whoever came up with the idea would be a millionaire entrepreneur instead of a writer.[[note]]If they had enough access to Capital to put the idea into fruition[[/note]]
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8!!Examples:
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12[[folder: Film ]]
13* In ''Film/HowToLoseAGuyIn10Days'', one protagonist advertising professional thinks a great new slogan for the diamond industry group is "Go frost yourself." The boss in the meeting really likes it.
14* In the second ''Film/OhGod'' movie, a great slogan to get the world's population to have more faith is "Think God." And write it on a bunch of signs.
15* At the end of ''Film/OtherPeoplesMoney'' the corporate raider played by Danny Devito does a mild HeelFaceTurn, by setting up a deal so that the almost defunct family corporation can use its obsolete copper cable factory to instead manufacture airbags thus saving the employees. Not sure there were any real-life analogous successful conversions in that industry during the 1980's/1990's.
16* In ''Film/{{Big}}'' when Tom Hanks' character gets called up to the toy company's executive meeting, he impresses the boss by spearheading a new toy brainstorming session. He questions the appeal of a building transformer and instead suggests bug transformers. Another executive chimes in, "Transformers for girls!"
17** (In real life, there are indeed "building" Transformers and "bug" Transformers. The bug ones are quite a bit more popular.)
18* ''Film/DontTellMomTheBabysittersDead'' has Creator/ChristinaApplegate's character help shape a fashion design company's new line of apparel. Even during the 1990's, the resulting outfits look ridiculous even when compared to real-life wacked-out fashion.
19* Subverted in ''Film/OfficeSpace.'' Smykowski's million-dollar idea is the "Jump-to-Conclusions Mat". [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin A mat.. with different conclusions... you can jump to]]! He's immediately told it's the worst idea anyone's ever heard of. He eventually makes it anyway, though we never find out if it takes off.
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22[[folder: Live Action TV ]]
23* Repeatedly played straight and subverted in numerous ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' episodes which have characters coming up with "ingenious" business ideas that include a beach fragrance, muffin tops, a coffee table book about coffee tables, a brassiere for men, a bladder system for oil tankers, restaurant relaunches, and more.
24* In one ''Series/GilmoreGirls'' episode Rory and her Chilton frenemies work on a school project competition for the best business plan with a prototype. The group that wins is a car alarm for lockers. Rory's group doesn't do much better - bedazzled first-aid kits.
25* In the third season of ''Series/HaltAndCatchFire'', Donna's plan to create an IPO for Mutiny, a small videogame company that's struggling to turn itself into an online trading hub, is presented as a brilliant business move. Subverted at the end of the season, when a TimeSkip reveals that the IPO was a disaster that ruined Donna's credibility as a software developer.
26* In ''Series/TheExes'' Haskell comes up with the idea for a phone app for using people's toilets for money. It's called Pee-Harmony. Stewart's sister Nikki decides to invest in it after using it as a result of being caught short. Eventually it's sold for a huge amount of money.
27* In the ''Series/RedDwarf'' episode "Timeslides" the guaranteed money-making idea that Lister gives to his past self, originally devised by one of Rimmer's classmates, is to paint bubblewrap red and call it a "tension sheet".
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30[[folder: Visual Novels ]]
31* In the epilogue of ''VisualNovel/DoubleHomework'', [[spoiler:Tamara]] opens a boutique where all the clothes are black. The sale of only black merchandise stopped being acceptable with cars a long time ago, let alone with clothes.
32* In ''VisualNovel/{{Melody}}'', Amy does very well for herself (and Melissa did too during her life) running a business ''refurbishing dresses''.
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35[[folder: Western Animation ]]
36* Subverted in a ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode when Homer designs a car for his brother's company. His brother trusts him as "the everyman." Homer designs it with a cornucopia of what he deems to be conveniences. When the car is unveiled to the public it resembles a freakish UFO on wheels, at an eye-watering sticker price of $82,000 (just over $152,000 in 2020 money). Needless to say, it was not a business success.
37* Also subverted in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'', where Huey, Dewey and Louie try to run Scrooge [=McDuck=]'s business while he's under medical quarantine. While their first ideas succeed and earn the support of the board of directors, it isn't long before their off-the-wall decisions (including a car design similar to Homer's above) nearly run the company into the ground, and only a ResetButton [[HollywoodLaw provided by a dubious interpretation of child labor laws]] is able to set things straight.
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