"Agent Washington...you just got Sar— [gunshot, explosion] God dammit, I messed up the one-liner!"
— Sarge, Red vs. Blue, trying to say "You just got Sarge'd."
It's become a staple of media that characters will have catch phrases. But sometimes, the character himself just can't get it right. It could be a combination of many things, such as they could get distracted mid-quote, or perhaps they're out of practice. Or if it's an origin story for a well-established character, you may expect them to stumble over it the first few times they try to say it.
Often will appear in Hilarious Outtakes, though whether or not it is intentional or just a flubbing of the line attempting to say it right varies, but this trope only deals when it happens In-Universe. In a work where the common tropes tend to get deconstructed, you can expect to see this more than in one where they are played straight. Usually Played for Laughs, though sometimes it could signal a serious Out-of-Character Moment.
Not to be confused with Mangled Catch Phrase for when an impostor is failing at it. Related to Borrowed Catch Phrase, when other characters take a turn at it (though only if they get it wrong). Compare to Subverted Catchphrase, when a character intentionally changes it up, Verbal Ticked for when something similar applies to a Verbal Tic, and Alternate Catchphrase Inflection where they get the words right but not the tone.
Examples:
Film
- In The Incredible Hulk (2008), Bruce Banner tries to tell a bunch of thugs trying to intimidate him that they wouldn't like him when he's angry. The effect is a bit lost in translation.
Banner: [in Portuguese] Don't make me... hungry. You wouldn't like me when I'm... hungry. [in English] Wait, that's not right.
- In Looney Tunes: Back in Action, it forms a Brick Joke, with Porky Pig complaining about the studio telling him to fix his stutter in the first few minutes of the movie. At the end, he stutters so much he can't even get his usual "That's all, folks!" out, even as the lights go off around him. He ends up just having to grimace and say "Go home, folks."
- Captain Jack Sparrow really only managed to get his catch phrase ("You will always remember this as the day that you almost caught Captain Jack Sparrow!") out properly once, but that doesn't stop him from trying to utter it at every opportunity in the Pirates of the Caribbean series
- In Underdog, the titular canine is trying to come up with a catchphrase but constantly screws them up or makes an awful rhyme, before he settles on the classic "There's no need to fear, Underdog is here!"
Literature
- Cut-me-own-Throat Dibbler manages to botch his catch phrase in Night Watch Discworld after Vimes travels 33 years into the past and inadvertently teaches it to him.
- Love You Forever: When the man's mother is dying in hospital, she tries to sing her trademark song to her son, but she can't say the last line due to either dying mid-sentence or being too senile to remember the lyrics.
Live-Action TV
- In the Doctor Who episode "The Almost People", the Doctor manages to botch two of his catch-phrases at once. It Makes Sense in Context.
"I reversed the jelly baby of the neutron flow!"
- Mork & Mindy: In "Putting the Ork Back in Mork", Mork has forgotten what he's meant to say when he gets hurt. It's meant to be "Shazbot!", but he instead says two Non Sequiturs: "I do not know any Libyans and I have not yet cashed the cheques" and "Let's move Laverne & Shirley to Thursday night, okay?".
- Star Trek: The Next Generation: In "Unification", a dying Sarek tries to say, "Live long and prosper", which is what all Vulcans say. However, due to his senility, he can't remember what goes after "live long and—".
Music
- Eminem, "Rain Man":
Hi, my name is...
I forgot my name!
Video Games
- In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, banana salesmen that turn out to be Yiga footmen will occasionally shout "For the banana!" instead of "For the boss!" if confronted after Master Kogha has been defeated.
- When Lisa finally finds Bart at the end of Level 3 in The Simpsons Hit & Run, he is reduced to The Unintelligible. Lisa tries to jog his memory by asking him what his favourite catchphrase isnote , only for Bart to instead say, "Kiss my grits!"
Web Animation
- In But Really Really Fast's episode for Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure Stardust Crusaders, Jotaro does this with his "I can't beat the shit out of you unless I can't get closer" line, saying it at the wrong points in the story. When he does finally get to the fight against DIO, he bungles it big time, but it's too late for do-overs.
- FreedomToons: Daily Wire host Ben Shapiro flubs his catchphrase, "Facts don't care about your feelings", after Dr. Mac causes his intelligence to degrade, perverting it into "Feelings don't care about your facts".
Web Video
- As noted in the quote above, Sarge from Red vs. Blue failed at his own (forced) catch-phrase "You just got Sarge'd," when he prematurely fires his shotgun in the middle of it.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series loves to do this to Kaiba's catchphrase. To date, he has said "Screw the Money, I Have Rules!" and "Screw The Rules I Have Green Hair" due to a flub and a drug-addled flashback respectively.
Western Animation
- The Atom Ant Show: Atom Ant botches his catch phrase "Up and at 'em, Atom Ant" in an episode where he's tempted with a picnic. Instead, he says "Up and eat 'em, Picnic Ant!"
- Buzz Lightyear of Star Command:
- At the end of one episode, Buzz tries out a Mangled Catch Phrase uttered by an animatronic likeness of him. After the Collective Groan his crew uttered, he states it doesn't really work.
- In the episode "Rescue Mission", Buzz nervously states before being teleported to the source of an alien distress signal "To infinity and....somewhere!"
- In one episode of Danny Phantom, when Danny has taken leave of his senses, he transforms with "I'm going...to become...ghostly!" Instead of his usually "I'm going ghost".
- Darkwing Duck: In "Stressed to Kill", Darkwing becomes brainwashed from a relaxation seminar, and when making his entrance he says, "I am the terror... and then somethin' about flappin'???"
- Dick Dastardly botches his "Drat! Drat and double drat!" in the Dastardly & Muttley episode "There's No Fool Like A Re-Fuel" after he gets flattened by a barrel of oil. He says "Flat! Flat! And triple flat!"
- In the Futurama episode "How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back", after being talked down from committing suicide and faced with certain demotion, Hermes is so shaken that he can only mutter "Sweet something of... of... someplace" instead of his usual Mad Libs Catchphrase.
- Harry and His Bucket Full of Dinosaurs: Usually when en route to Dino World, Harry says, "I'm on my way to... Dino World!". However, in "Achoo", he has a cold and thus sneezes in the middle of the place's name.
Sid: "Dino Wachoo? I've never heard of such a place."
- My Friends Tigger & Pooh:
- In one episode, Tigger tries to say, "The mystery is history" only for something else mysterious to crop up in the middle of the word "history".
- In "Darby, Solo Sleuth", Beaver tries to sing his song, but sneezes in the middle of it, so the lyric sounds like "All I seem to achoo" instead of "All I seem to do".
- The Simpsons:
- In "Team Homer", Springfield Elementary gets school uniforms, causing the school to become more obedient. This leads Nelson to flub his own Signature Laugh with "Haw...huh?"
- In "Grade School Confidential", Nelson punches Martin and laughs "Haw—", before suffering a stomach ache and collapsing.
- In "Million-Dollar Abie", Nelson laughs at Hans Moleman, but suffers a heart attack and drops silently on the sidewalk halfway through.
- SpongeBob SquarePants: In "The Nitwitting", SpongeBob loses his brain and can't remember who he is. Patrick gets him to say his catchphrase, "I'm ready!" SpongeBob instead says multiple nonsense phrases with the same infliction: "Spa-ghetti! Dime Betty! I'm all wetty!"
