"If at first you don't succeed, you fail."
— GLaDOS, Portal
There are a lot of tropes about failing. That should probably tell you something.
Contrast Indexed For Success.
Tropes:
See also:
- Abilene Paradox: Failure to manage consensus—when the majority decides to do something that the majority doesn't want.
- Acquired Error at the Printer: You fail to print something properly.
- Aesop Amnesia: You fail to remember the moral you learned last episode.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: You fail to make your sentient computer behave.
- The Alleged Car: Your car is prone to failure.
- The Alleged Computer: Your computer is prone to failure.
- The Alleged Expert: You fail to do what you were supposedly trained to do.
- Americans Hate Tingle: Your work fails to gain a large foreign audience.
- Amnesia Missed a Spot: Your attempt to wipe someone's mind doesn't work as well as you'd expected.
- Anti-Climax Boss: Your final opponent fails to put up much of a fight.
- Anti-Mentor: You fail to be a good teacher.
- Anvilicious: Your story fails to deliver its message in a manner that is subtle and doesn't piss off people who may disagree with the message.
- Assassin Outclassin': You fail at assassination.
- Ass Pull: You fail to foreshadow your plot twists.
- A-Team Firing: You fail to shoot a target.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: You fail to concentrate.
- Atrocious Alias: You fail to give yourself a good code name.
- Audience-Alienating Premise: You fail to attract the audience's interest.
- Audience Participation Failure: You fail to get audience backup in your show or song.
- Automatic Door Malfunction: Automatic doors fail in some way.
- Award Snub: You fail to receive an award and/or nomination for your work.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Your technique or equipment seems amazing, but using it is a bad idea.
- Bad "Bad Acting": You fail to give even a remotely good performance.
- Bad Liar: You fail to tell a lie convincingly.
- Base-Breaking Character: Your character unintentionally fails to appeal to approximately half your audience.
- Blatant Lies: You fail to tell that somebody else is lying.
- *Bleep*-dammit!: The censorship fails to effectively censor the content in the work needing to be censored.
- "Blind Idiot" Translation: You fail to translate something.
- Blunder-Correcting Impulse: Bob fails in such a way as to provoke Alice to demonstrate the correct way without thinking about the consequences.
- Bonus Feature Failure: You fail to provide good bonus content.
- Boom in the Hand: You fail to throw the bomb before it explodes.
- Box Office Bomb: Your movie fails to make enough money.
- Broken Aesop: You fail to convey your message because your characters don't obey it. Bonus points if it was meant to be Anvilicious.
- Buffy Speak: You fail to articulate a sentence.
- Bungled Suicide: You fail to commit suicide.
- Butt-Dialing Mordor: You fail to avoid detection by making unintentional contact with the enemy.
- But We Used a Condom!: A condom fails to work effeciently.
- Caffeine Failure: You fail to stay awake.
- Calling Me a Logarithm: You fail to realize that you weren't just slurred.
- Cannot Keep a Secret: You fail to protect a secret.
- Cannot Spit It Out: You fail to say something succinctly.
- Cannot Tell a Joke: You fail to tell a joke.
- Can't Get Away with Nuthin': You fail to stay out of trouble.
- Can't Get in Trouble for Nuthin': You fail to get into trouble.
- Can't Hold His Liquor: Your self-control fails when you imbibe alcohol.
- Can't Use Stairs: Your locomotion fails to let you use stairs.
- Captain Obvious Aesop: You fail to teach a lesson people don't already know.
- Captain Obvious Reveal: You fail to make your big revelation a surprise.
- Cardboard Prison: Your prison fails to contain its prisoners.
- Cassandra Truth: You tell the facts, but your recipients fail to accept them.
- Character Derailment: You fail to keep characters consistent.
- Christmas Light Chaos: You fail to rig up Christmas lights.
- Color Failure: You fail to keep your color when you lose your cool.
- Comically Missing the Point: You fail to understand the point another person is trying to get across in a humorous manner.
- Completely Off-Topic Report: You fail to write your assignment on a subject relevant to what was assigned.
- Concepts Are Cheap: You fail to offer intellectual depth for your idealistic rhetoric.
- Confidence Sabotage: You are tricked into believing you're a failure.
- Conflict Ball: You fail to set up character conflicts properly.
- Correction Bait: You fail not to correct the mistake you've found.
- Cowboy BeBop at His Computer: You mess up information about a work that was obvious to anyone who is familiar with said work.
- Crapola Tech: Technology that fails even to be a good prototype.
- Creator's Pet: You fail to notice the audience's hatred for a character, continuing to endorse her/him.
- Critical Existence Failure: You fail to stay alive, even though you were fine one hit point ago.
- Critical Failure: You fail to roll a two or higher, thus leading to more failure.
- Critical Psychoanalysis Failure: You fail to psychoanalyze someone.
- Cryonics Failure: Your freezing system fails, usually with fatal consequences.
- Dangerous Key Fumble: You fail to hold on to your keys.
- Dangerously Loaded Cargo: You failed to secure cargo.
- Deaf Composer: You can't enjoy something you made because your ability to experience the necessary sense(s) has failed.
- Death by Genre Savviness: Your knowledge of how things happen in works of fiction similar to the situation you are currently in fails to keep you alive.
- Defensive Failure: You fail to remember the weapon in your hand.
- Delayed Safety Feature: A safety feature fails to activate until after it would have been useful.
- Designated Hero: You fail to create a good character.
- Designated Villain: You fail to create an evil character.
- Despair Event Horizon: Your hope has failed and is beyond hope of restoration past this point.
- Didn't See That Coming: You fail to consider the consequences of your plan.
- Didn't Think This Through: You fail to plan thoroughly.
- Died During Production: You fail to finish your series before you die.
- Digging Yourself Deeper: You fail monumentally to fix a faux pas.
- Disappointing Heritage Reveal: Your ancestors fail to impress you.
- Disappointing Last Level: The final stretch of a game fails to meet expectations.
- Disastrous Demonstration: Demonstration of a product or concept goes so horribly wrong that, whether it deserves to be or not, it's discredited.
- Distracted by the Sexy: You fail to concentrate in the presence of Fanservice.
- D.I.Y. Disaster: You fail at renovating your house.
- Don't Shoot the Message: Not only do you fail at enlightening others because your delivery was fallacious, vicious, or both, but for like reason(s) you fail at appealing to those on your side.
- Doppelgänger Gets Same Sentiment: You fail to distinguish emotionally between someone you know and a clone/Alternate Universe duplicate/zombie/shapeshifter that "is" or used to be them.
- Dramatically Missing the Point
- Dreadful Musician: You fail to make music.
- Drives Like Crazy: You fail to drive safely.
- Dude, Not Funny!: You fail to keep your comedy in good taste.
- Dull Surprise: You fail to emote when, logically, you should be.
- E = MC Hammer: You fail to write convincing-looking mathematics.
- Eight Deadly Words: A Fan Speak phrase said when you fail to get people to be invested in your story.
- Elevator Failure: Your elevator fails.
- Entendre Failure: You fail to make a double entendre.
- Entertainingly Wrong: Sound though your reasoning is, it nonetheless fails to lead you to an accurate conclusion.
- Epic Fail: You fail spectacularly.
- Escaped Animal Rampage: When people failed to keep animals locked in their cages.
- Every Car Is a Pinto: Cars catch on fire and/or explode when badly damaged.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Villains fail due to their inability to see how virtue motivates their adversaries.
- Evil Will Fail: You can pursue a life of evil if you wish, but there'll be severe consequences.
- Exact Time to Failure: Initiating failure in three... two... one...
- Explosive Results: The failure of a device/concoction/spell results in a comical explosion, a cloud of smoke, and ash on someone's face.
- Explosive Stupidity: You fail to handle a bomb correctly.
- F--: You fail spectacularly at schoolwork.
- Facial Composite Failure: You fail to draw an accurate Wanted poster.
- Failed a Spot Check: You fail to spot something two inches from your face.
- Failed Attempt at Drama: You fail to make a dramatic moment.
- Failed Attempt at Scaring: You fail to scare someone.
- Failed Audition Plot: You fail an audition for your dream career, but find a reason to keep trying.
- Failed Dramatic Exit: You fail to leave your setting promptly on the note you wanted.
- Failed Execution, No Sentence: After repeatedly failing to execute a criminal, the judge gives up and pardons the criminal.
- Failed Future Forecast: You fail to predict the future.
- Failing a Taxi: You fail to hail a taxi.
- Failsafe Failure: You fail to make a failsafe.
- Failure Gambit: You fail intentionally as part of a grander scheme.
- Failure Hero: You fail to save the day.
- Failure Is the Only Option: You have no choice but to fail because success would end the story.
- Failure Knight: Your backstory revolves around some failure.
- Failure Montage: You are shown failing in various ways.
- Failures on Ice: You fail to skate, especially on ice.
- Fallout Shelter Fail: You fail at riding out the apocalypse in safety.
- Femininity Failure: You fail to be ladylike.
- Fetish Retardant: You fail at Fanservice.
- Fight Scene Failure: You fail to direct an awesome fight scene.
- Flame Bait: You fail to realize the intensity of the mutual Values Dissonance between you and other people online.
- Flashback Fail: When someone tries to remember something, but is somehow unable to do so.
- Flawed Prototype: Something fails because it is an early model and not as good as the final product.
- Floorboard Failure: The floorboards have failed to support your weight.
- Forgot About His Powers: You fail to remember that you have a power that can save you.
- Freudian Slippery Slope: You fail to prevent further Freudian Slips.
- Gave Up Too Soon: You failed because you gave up at the last second when you were about to succeed.
- General Failure: Your plans fail to prove you earned your rank as General.
- Gift-Giving Gaffe: You fail to get someone a suitable present.
- Glamour Failure: You fail to hide who you really are.
- A Glitch in the Matrix: Your otherwise convincing illusion momentarily malfunctions.
- Going Home Again: Making it to the big leagues, flunking, and returning home in shame or to clear the mind.
- Gone Horribly Right: Your plan worked, but you fail to consider its consequences.
- Gone Horribly Wrong: Not only does your plan not work, it fails to work in disastrous ways.
- Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: Heroes fail due to their inability to see how vice motivates their adversaries.
- Gotta Pass the Class: You're failing at school, so you'd better hit the books.
- Group Costume Fail: You fail to coordinate your costuming with others.
- The Guards Must Be Crazy: The guards fail to do their jobs.
- Half-Baked Niceness: Your compliment fails to be what a compliment should be.
- Hand Wave: You fail to explain complicated plot points in great detail.
- Happily Failed Suicide: You failed to commit suicide, and that's a good thing.
- Harmless Villain: You fail to be a credible villain.
- Hero-Tracking Failure: You fail to shoot a moving target with Plot Armor.
- Hero with an F in Good: You fail to be heroic.
- Heroic BSoD: Your brain fails at a crucial juncture as you are committing your good deeds.
- Heroic Fatigue: A hero suffering the breaking point of being a hero.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: You bring your own failure directly upon yourself.
- Hollywood Heart Attack: Your heart dramatically fails to work.
- Holodeck Malfunction: Holograms glitch and become deadly.
- Horsing Around: You fail at getting the steed to do what you want it to.
- Hypocrite: You fail to practice what you preach.
- I Can't Dance: You admit that you are a failure at dancing.
- Idiot Ball: Your brain temporarily fails to work properly.
- Ignorant About Fire: You fail to prevent a fire from starting or spreading due to being too stupid, naive, or clumsy.
- Ignorant of Their Own Ignorance: You fail to realize your own ineptitude.
- I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: You shoot someone due to failing to handle a gun properly.
- I Let Gwen Stacy Die: You fail to save your loved ones.
- I'll Never Tell You What I'm Telling You!: You fail epically at keeping a secret, even as you insist you'll succeed.
- Immunity Attrition: Your immunity to something only protects you in the short run, but prolonged exposure cancels it out.
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Your entire army fails to shoot a moving target with Plot Armor.
- Imposter Forgot One Detail: You fail to convince others you are someone else.
- Incompetence, Inc.: Your business fails at everything.
- Incompetent Guard Animal: An animal meant to guard, protect or chase away hilariously fails at its job.
- Inconvenient Dark Room Illumination: You fail to lock the dark room door, and someone barged in and let light ruin the photos you were developing.
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Your evil schemes fail so often that the audience feels sorry for you.
- I Never Said It Was Poison: You fail because you demonstrated knowledge you shouldn't have had.
- I Never Told You My Name: You fail to avoid mentioning a person's name when you're trying to convince them that they never met you before.
- Inept Mage: You fail at magic.
- Informed Attribute: You fail to demonstrate that a character is what you say s/he is like.
- Inopportune Impersonation Failure: A character in disguise fails at the last second and is unmasked.
- Insecurity Camera: A security camera fails to be useful, which is good news for you, the intruder.
- Insult Misfire: You fail to offend your intended target.
- In-Universe Factoid Failure: You fail to get a fact right.
- I Thought Everyone Could Do That: You fail to realize everyone else's ineptitude compared to you.
- It Only Works Once: Your previously successful technique fails when used again.
- It's a Wonderful Failure: You see the repercussions of your failure before you see Game Over.
- I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure: You failed, so your pal's got pain coming.
- Jerk Sue: You fail to create a Jerkass Woobie.
- Jump Rope Blunders: You fail to skip rope.
- Just One Little Mistake: You failed to get away with your crime because of one minor slip-up.
- Key Confusion: You fail to find the correct key among a bunch of other keys.
- Lame Comeback: You fail to come up with a witty one-liner.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Your memory fails you whenever it's convenient for somebody else.
- Last-Second Photo Failure: You almost maintained order until the picture was taken, but you failed to prevent chaos at the last second.
- Lazy Alias: You fail to come up with a convincing fake name.
- Lethal Chef: You fail at cooking.
- Literal-Minded: You fail to understand metaphors.
- Logic Bomb: Your statement fails to maintain consistency with reality and possibility.
- Loose Lips: You fail to prevent yourself from giving away information at your own and other people's peril.
- Losing Horns: Brass instruments or some other sound effects mock your failure.
- Lost Aesop: You fail to remember the message you were originally trying to send.
- MacGuffin Blindness: You fail to recognize the object you're looking for when it's right in front of you.
- Made Out to Be a Jerkass: You lose face when you stand up for yourself.
- Magic Misfire: You fail to cast your spell on your intended target.
- Major Injury Underreaction: You fail to react to a serious injury.
- Makeover Fail: A makeover fails to make a person look better.
- Matchmaker Failure: Character tries and fails to set two people up together.
- Maternally Challenged: A woman fails to be good with children.
- Mayor Pain: You fail as a city leader.
- Meaningless Meaningful Words: Your phrase with a "unique" meaning is anything but.
- Memetic Loser: You are famous for your many and/or spectacular failures.
- Metaphorgotten: You fail to convey a metaphor.
- Mind Your Step: A staircase's structural integrity fails.
- Minion with an F in Evil: You fail to be villainous.
- Miss Conception: You fail to realize that you need to have sex to get pregnant.
- Missed the Recital: You failed to arrive at a special event on time.
- Misspelling Out Loud: You fail to spell a word out loud.
- Mistakes Are Not the End of the World: As long as you tried your best, it's OK to fail.
- Money Is Not Power: You fail to bribe your way out of facing the consequences of your actions.
- Mook Depletion: You let yourself run out of Evil Minions.
- Moral Event Horizon: You cross the line into villainy for good.
- Morphic Resonance: Your shape-shifting fails to effectively hide your identity because of certain recognizable traits that stick no matter what form you assume.
- Morton's Fork: You fail regardless of the choice you make.
- The Mountains of Illinois: You fail to provide proper geography when filming your show or movie.
- Mugging the Monster: You fail to realize that the target of your crime is Not So Harmless.
- Muggle Born of Mages: Special talent skips a generation.
- My Car Hates Me: Your getaway car fails to start.
- My Greatest Failure: You have never failed harder than this.
- My Greatest Second Chance: Preventing a a failure of yours from happening again, to you or to others.
- My Hovercraft Is Full of Eels: You fail to speak a foreign language.
- Narm: You fail to make a scene serious.
- Near Misses: Peak tension is achieved by a character almost getting hit by a projectile.
- Necessary Fail: You failed, but it's going to lead to greater things in the future.
- Network Death: Your TV network fails to stay on the air.
- Never Bring a Friend to an Audition: You fail at landing a role that you're auditioning for yourself; your friend got it instead.
- Never My Fault: You fail to realize the responsibilities of your own actions.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Hero fails by trying to solve the problem.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Rivals!: You and your enemy both fail because neither of you could bear the thought of the other winning.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Villain fails by trying to cause a problem.
- No Adequate Punishment: The law has no idea how to punish a specific crime.
- No Can Opener: Hoarding canned items for emergencies but forgetting the can opener.
- No Dead Body Poops: You fail to brown your pants when you die.
- "No. Just… No" Reaction: You reject something while failing to articulate why you refuse to accept it properly.
- No Listening Skills: You fail to listen to anything anyone tells you.
- Non Sequitur, *Thud*: You fail to say something meaningful after an injury.
- No OSHA Compliance: You fail to provide a safe workplace.
- No-Sell: Your ploy that usually succeeds fails on this person.
- No Social Skills: You fail to carry on in a social setting.
- Not Distracted by the Sexy: Fanservice fails to throw you off your track.
- Not Quite Saved Enough: You fail to keep yourself or someone you rescued safe from harm just as the dust clears.
- Nurse with Good Intentions: Someone tries to care for their sick or injured friend, but causes more problems than success.
- Obliviously Evil: You fail to realize that you're a villain.
- Oblivious to Hatred: You fail to realize someone else hates you.
- Oblivious to Hints: You fail to take a hint.
- Oblivious to His Own Description: You fail to realize that someone is talking about you.
- Oblivious to Love: You fail to realize that someone has romantic feelings for you.
- Obvious Beta: You fail to program a game.
- Obvious Judas: You fail to make your twist villain a surprise.
- Obviously Evil: Villains fail at subtlety.
- Obvious Stunt Double: The stunt double fails to pass as the actor.
- Of Course I Smoke: You fail to pretend to be a smoker.
- Offending the Creator's Own: You fail to appeal to viewers from your own background.
- Open-Fly Gag: You fail to check and adjust your clothes below the waist before anyone else reminds you.
- Open Relationship Failure: A non-monogamous relationship has problems for reasons directly related to it being non-monogamous.
- Open Secret: You tell that it is a secret, and then everyone goes to it and finds out.
- Otherworldly Communication Failure: Supernatural being fails to communicate their message to a human either because they freak them out or because they physically can't interact or talk to non-supernatural beings.
- Out-Gambitted: Your plan fails when pitted against someone else's.
- Overshadowed by Controversy: You fail to make your work remembered for its merits, and instead remembered for an uproar.
- Own Goal: You fail to score a point in the opponent's goal, but succeed in scoring in your own team's goal.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: You fail to recognize someone who is barely concealing his/her identity.
- Pass Fail: You fail to be recognized as white, even if you're not.
- The Password Is Always "Swordfish": You fail to create a good password.
- Personal Horror: You fail to follow your own Code of Honor.
- The Peter Principle: You succeeded at your old position, but fail at your new one.
- Phlebotinum Breakdown: Your fantastic technology or magical item fails right when you need it most.
- Plan B Resolution: Plan A was thought to be the only real plan needed, and with its failure, an emergency Plan B is needed.
- Plot Hole: You fail to maintain your story's internal logic while writing it.
- Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: The hero's friends suddenly and temporarily fail to be friends for the sole reason of adding more drama to the plot.
- Plumber's Crack: The plumber failed to check whether their pants or jeans wouldn't sag down to expose their butt crack when they bent over.
- Pointy-Haired Boss: You fail as a business leader.
- Poke the Poodle: Your attempt at an evil act fails to be evil.
- The Poorly Chosen One: The Chosen One fails his job.
- Popcultural Osmosis Failure: You fail to recognize another demographic's pop-culture references.
- Potty Failure: You fail to keep your pants clean.
- Powerful, but Incompetent: A character that has great power or ability, but is too dumb to actually accomplish anything with it.
- Power Incontinence: You fail to keep your power under control.
- The Presents Were Never from Santa: You fail to recognize the true source of all those useful things you got.
- Recognition Failure: You fail to recognize someone.
- Reckless Gun Usage: You fail to handle a gun properly.
- Redemption Failure: You fail to remain on the side of good.
- Reliably Unreliable Guns: Your gun is poorly made, so it fails to shoot when it's supposed to and/or shoots when it's not supposed to.
- Reminder Failure: You fail to remember why you set up your mnemonics.
- Repeated Rehearsal Failure: Your rehearsed message fails to stay coherent as you repeat it.
- Revealing Cover Up: You fail to hide something immoral or incriminating.
- Rock Beats Laser: Your state-of-the-art technology fails against more primitive weapons.
- Rooting for the Empire: You fail to get your audience to root for the hero against the villain.
- Rouge Angles of Satin: Yew fell two use wards car wrecked lee (You fail to use words correctly).
- Rummage Fail: You fail to find something in a bag of random items.
- Running into the Window: You fail to prevent your collision with a window.
- Samaritan Syndrome: You fail to rescue everybody when you're try to save a bunch of people.
- Sarcasm-Blind: You fail to understand sarcasm.
- Sarcasm Failure: You fail to express sarcasm.
- Saying Too Much: You fail to avoid revealing confidential information.
- Scrappy Mechanic: You fail at making a game mechanic fun.
- The Scrappy: Your character unintentionally fails to garner a Fandom, instead garnering a Hatedom.
- Seeking the Intangible: You fail to realize that intangible/abstract things can't be sought for.
- Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: You failed to Screw Destiny because you made it happen yourself.
- Self-Offense: You hurt your buddies because you failed to recognize they weren't your enemies.
- Self-Punishment Over Failure: You punish yourself for failing at something.
- Senseless Sacrifice: You fail to accomplish anything with your Heroic Sacrifice.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: A story's buildup fails to have a payoff.
- Shallow Cannot Comprehend True Love: A superficial person fails to understand that not everyone else is shallow.
- Shapeshifting Failure: Your shapeshifting is imperfect or falls apart quickly.
- Shoehorned Acronym: You fail to make an acronym well.
- Shoot the Shaggy Dog Story: A story's buildup fails to have a payoff, and the characters shall die for it.
- Short-Lived Aerial Escape: The helicopter sent to rescue you fails to get away after you get on board.
- The Show Must Go Wrong: You fail to keep disaster from happening during your performance.
- Sick Captive Scam: A guard fails to realize a captive is faking illness/injury to get the drop on him.
- The Simple Gesture Wins: After several grand gestures fail, the one that works is the unimpressive one.
- Skepticism Failure: You fail to disprove the existence of the supernatural.
- Skewed Priorities: You fail to notice what is more important.
- Slippery Swimsuit: Your swimsuit fails to stay on your body.
- So Much for Stealth: You managed to sneak this far, but now you've failed to maintain your stealth.
- Spanner in the Works: Your evil plan is thwarted because you failed to anticipate the involvement of the hero who thwarts the plan.
- Special Effect Failure: You failed to fund the SFX department properly.
- Springtime for Hitler: A Failure Gambit fails by becoming an unexpected, unwanted success.
- Staircase Tumble: You fail to keep your balance on a staircase, either because of a faulty staircase or your own body.
- Stillborn Franchise: Your work fails to start an intended franchise.
- Streisand Effect: You fail to suppress knowledge of something, and are making it more widely known, instead.
- Status Quo Game Show: You failed to win a game show because Status Quo Is God.
- Stock Footage Failure: You fail to realize that was a bad time to use Stock Footage.
- Straw Character: You fail to present your opponents' actual arguments.
- Strawman Has a Point: You fail to make your opponents look irrational.
- Sturgeon's Law: You'll fail nine times out of ten.
- Sucks at Dancing: You fail at dancing.
- Sucky School: Your educational institution fails to function.
- Surveillance Station Slacker: Whoever watches the security cameras fails to do their job.
- Suspect Existence Failure: The suspects for a crime you're investigating fail to stay alive. This hints that you've probably failed to put the perpetrator on your suspect list.
- Suspect Is Hatless: You're asked to describe a person, but fail to make your description specific enough to narrow down who the person could be.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: You fail to avoid suspicion because you denied stuff the other person hasn't even accused you of.
- Swiss-Cheese Security: Your security fails to keep people out.
- Symbology Research Failure: You fail to remember that cool logo you saw the other day and put into your work actually has religious meanings.
- Teleporter Accident: You fail at teleportation.
- Testing Range Mishap: You fail at the testing range and possibly beyond it.
- Thinks of Something Smart, Says Something Stupid: You fail to say a smart thing despite thinking of one, and say a stupid thing instead.
- Third-Party Deal Breaker: An agreement falls apart because somebody outside the deal interferes with it.
- Thought-Aversion Failure: You fail not to think about something when ordered not to.
- Thread of Prophecy, Severed: A prophecy fails to come to pass due to something involved in it breaking.
- Throw the Pin: You fail to handle a grenade correctly.
- Time for Plan B: Your first plan failed; on to the backup.
- Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: You fail to give your audience anything to like about your work's setting and characters.
- Too Dumb to Live: Because you failed so badly to think things through, your body fails to keep working.
- Torture Is Ineffective: You fail to torture information out of a prisoner.
- Totally Radical: You fail at youth culture forever.
- A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: You failed because you just couldn't wait.
- Translation by Volume: You fail to communicate with foreigners.
- Translation Train Wreck: You fail monumentally to translate something.
- Trap-Door Fail: You fail to drop someone down through a trapdoor.
- Trapped by Mountain Lions: You fail to make the characters' stories relevant to the greater plotline.
- Trapped the Wrong Target: A trap catches someone or something other than the intended target.
- Trust-Building Blunder: An exercise meant to improve interpersonal trust increases tensions because someone intentionally or unintentionally messed it up.
- Tutorial Failure: You fail to teach someone how to play a game properly.
- Underling with an F in PR: You don't care about the media fallout of your actions.
- Unexpectedly Real Magic: You fail to realize what you're doing is magic until it's too late.
- Unfortunate Character Design: You fail to notice that you designed the character in a way that they look unintentionally risque or offensive.
- Unfortunate Implications: You fail to notice an accidental stereotype or other offensive aspect in your work before making it public.
- Unfortunate Item Swap: You fail to tell those two important objects apart.
- Unintentionally Sympathetic: You fail to create a proper Hate Sink.
- Unintentionally Unsympathetic: You fail to create a likeable character.
- Unintentionally Unwinnable: The programmer and/or game designer fails, or the player fails by trying too hard or messing around.
- Unintentional Period Piece: You fail to make a timeless work.
- Unishment: You fail to make the punishee rue the consequences.
- The Unsmile: You fail to smile properly.
- Unsuccessful Pet Adoption: You fail to own a pet, either because it runs away or is sent away.
- Unwinnable: The game can only end in failure, no matter how much you win.
- Unwinnable by Design: The programmer intentionally designs a game that can only end in failure.
- Upside-Down Blueprints: An architect follows the blueprints they're reading... only to build the project upside down.
- Useless Security Camera: A security camera fails to be useful, which is bad news for you, the police.
- Values Dissonance: Your work fails to connect with people outside the intellectual fashions of your time and place.
- Video Call Fail: A video call which goes off the rails, usually thanks to the user of it.
- Viewer Name Confusion: Audiences fail to get your name right.
- Villainous Breakdown: You lose your composure and/or sanity when your Evil Plan fails.
- Villainous Plan Inertia: You defeated the villain, but that alone won't stop his plan.
- Virtual Assistant Blunder: Your smart device fails to understand what you just asked it.
- Voodoo Shark: You fail to cover your plot holes.
- Walking Techbane: You fail to prevent your mere presence from causing machinery to fail.
- Wardrobe Malfunction: Your clothes fail to cover you.
- Watch Out for That Tree!: You fail to prevent your collision with a tree.
- Watch Where You're Going!: You fail to prevent your collision with someone else.
- We ARE Struggling Together: You fail to cooperate with someone who shares your objectives.
- Wearing It All Wrong: You fail to put a garment on the right body part.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Your defences fail against a common and/or feeble attack.
- What Does This Button Do?: You fail to exercise restraint around buttons that you shouldn't be pressing.
- What the Fu Are You Doing?: You fail at martial arts.
- Where's the Kaboom?: You fail to make something explode.
- "Where? Where?": You fail to recognize that someone is referring to you.
- Wimp Fight: You and your opponent fail at fighting.
- With Catlike Tread: Your attempt at stealth has the complete opposite effect.
- Witless Protection Program: Witness Protection fails to prevent criminal retaliation.
- Worf Had the Flu: You fail because of a temporary disadvantage.
- World Limited to the Plot: You fail to build context for your story.
- Wrong Line of Work: Someone gets a job they lack the proper skills for.
- You Answered Your Own Question: You fail to see the obvious answer contained within your own question.
- You Are Too Late: You fail to reach your destination on time.
- You Can't Fight Fate: Your attempts to Screw Destiny will fail every time.
- You Can't Thwart Stage One: You fail to stop a villain's plan even when you should have succeeded.
- You Have Failed Me: You fail to please your superior, and pay the price for it.
- You Just Ruined the Shot: You interrupted the actors because you failed to distinguish acting from reality.
- You Just Told Me: You fail to recognize that someone is tricking you into revealing the secret.
- You Keep Using That Word: You fail to understand the actual definition of a word you use.
- Your Costume Needs Work: You, the genuine article, fail to be recognizable when compared to imitations.
- You Were Trying Too Hard: You failed because you had to do the job calmly.
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