History Main / KarmicMisfire

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': In "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS2E12PressureTheSmokingPeanut The Smoking Peanut]]", [=SpongeBob=] throws a peanut at Clamu the giant clam at the zoo, causing it to cry. Eventually, he gets a visit from the police, and he starts to confess when it turns out they are looking for Patrick, whom they blame for making Clamu cry. [=SpongeBob=] feels so guilty he confesses to the angry mob that chained Patrick. Instead of letting him go, they demand that [=SpongeBob=] get chained up too, [[spoiler:but then the real reason for Clamu's distress is revealed - Mr. Krabs having stolen its pearl, which is actually an egg.]]

* Two men are playing golf, when one misses his shot and starts swearing. The other, being a priest, tells him to stop taking the name of the Lord in vain. The man apologizes and they keep playing. A while later, he misses again, starts cursing, with the priest begging him to stop as storm clouds gather. Still later, the man misses again, starts cursing, and as thunder booms and skies darken, a lightning bolt kills...the priest. And a voice comes out of the clouds saying, "Oh Me-fucking dammit! Fucking missed!"

** Another [[RecursiveFanfiction Recursive Fanwork]], ''Fanfic/KarmasABitch'', has Lila suffer the LaserGuidedKarma she's due. However, Adrien and most of the class still suffer from some karmic misfires in the process (though their lives aren't ruined to the extent they are in the original) due to being victimized by Lila and [[TheChessmaster Zoe]], with Zoe taking Lila's place as [[KarmaHoudini the one who gets away with her crimes]].

* In one of the [[Creator/{{Plato}} Platonic Dialogues,]] this trope is used to illustrate the question of whether morality comes merely from reward and punishment or from some deeper source. In his example, Plato uses a theoretical [[VillainWithGoodPublicity "loved tyrant"]] who gets one KarmaHoudini after another as the counterpart to a [[HeroWithBadPublicity "hated philosopher"]] who is a perpetual Karmic ButtMonkey. In Plato's view, the philosopher is still better off because, through his well-ordered rational soul, he has found ''Eudaimonia'' (true happiness) despite having his [[EyeScream eyes gouged out with a hot poker]] and being sent to Hell by the [[JerkassGods Greek gods]] who are just as susceptible to false propaganda as the mortals.

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* ''Art/AphroditeOfMenophantos'': {{Implied}} and {{defied}}. Part of the reason why Aphrodite is rushing to cover herself up is that she a human has stumbled upon her while she was taking a bath. Mortals receive nasty divine punishments for seeing a naked goddess, even if it's by accident, so she's trying to prevent that.

** Another [[RecursiveFanfiction Recursive Fanwork]], ''Fanfic/KarmasABitch'', has Lila suffer the LaserGuidedKarma she's due. However, Adrien and most of the class still suffer from some karmic misfires in the process due to being victimized by Lila and [[TheChessmaster Zoe]], with Zoe taking Lila's place as [[KarmaHoudini the one who gets away with her crimes]].

* The premise of ''Fanfic/TheKarmaOfLies'' is that Adrien's [[AccompliceByInaction refusal to do act against Lila]] results in him being hit by ''her'' karmic backlash on top of his own after Hawkmoth is defeated, as she flees Paris and leaves him holding the bag. Unusually, Adrien is ''not'' portrayed sympathetically here; it's repeatedly emphasized that Adrien believes he benefits from ProtagonistCenteredMorality, and that he refuses to do anything about Lila because he [[OriginalPositionFallacy assumes HE won't be hurt by any of her schemes]]. He even ''defends'' Lila and supports several of her lies, which [[HoistByHisOwnPetard bites him in the butt]] once she [[TheFarmerAndTheViper sets him up to take the fall]].

* ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead'': The titular duo has gotten away with wreaking havoc across town, with the people around ending up taking the fall instead. In the episode "Drones", the duo trespass into the drone control center and mess with the drones inside. An army officer gets manhandled and arrested by security guards for the damages, [[IdiotHoudini while the duo walks off scot-free]].

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* In ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'', one episode "Dream Goat" has Timmy and his babysitter Vicky visit the town's mascot, Chompy the Goat. Timmy notices that Chompy seems sad in his cage, and while everyone is away, he wishes for goat mind-reading powers from his fairy godparents. He learns that Chompy wants to be free, and thus he decides to set him free. Then Vicky comes in and through a number of coincidences, she ends up being mistaken for a person who kidnapped the goat, while Timmy gets mistaken for a hero who caught her. For the majority of the episode, everyone keeps praising him and giving him all sorts of cool rewards, but soon, one of his fairy godparents remarks that this doesn't seem very fair. Eventually, Timmy starts feeling so guilty about Vicky that he has trouble sleeping, and starts wishing for nonsensical stuff while asleep, causing chaos. Ultimately, Timmy decides to reveal the truth to the town, and after they learn that the goat is much happier now, they let him go. He still gets grounded by his parents, though. Oh, [[SomethingWeForgot and Vicky is still left in the stocks, completely forgotten about]].

* ''ComicStrip/{{Popeye}}'': In 1946's "Service With a Guile", after the admiral's car gets wrecked, Popeye opens up a can of spinach and quickly reassembles it in a matter of seconds. Just as the admiral is about to arrive, Bluto shoves Popeye aside, taking credit for the fix-up job as if he had done it himself. This backfires horribly when the admiral's car (which Popeye had reassembled) turns into a heap of disassembled scrap auto parts. Bluto gets assigned to scraping barnacles from the navy ships, while Popeye gets off the hook scot-free, even though he hastily reassembled the admiral's car.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': In "The Smoking Peanut", [=SpongeBob=] throws a peanut at Clamu the giant clam at the zoo, causing it to cry. Eventually, he gets a visit from the police, and he starts to confess when it turns out they are looking for Patrick, whom they blame for making Clamu cry. [=SpongeBob=] feels so guilty he confesses to the angry mob that chained Patrick. Instead of letting him go, they demand that [=SpongeBob=] get chained up too, [[spoiler:but then the real reason for Clamu's distress is revealed - Mr. Krabs having stolen its pearl, which is actually an egg.]]

* The premise of ''Fanfic/TheKarmaOfLies'' is that Adrien's [[AccompliceByInaction refusal to do act against Lila]] results in him being hit by ''her'' karmic backlash on top of his own after Hawkmoth is defeated, as she flees Paris and leaves him holding the bag. Unusually, Adrien is ''not'' portrayed sympathetically here; it's repeatedly emphasized that Adrien believes he benefits from ProtagonistCenteredMorality, and that he refuses to do anything about Lila because he [[OriginalPositionFallacy assumes HE won't be hurt by any of her schemes]].