History Main / SureLetsGoWithThat

* This is how the "NORAD Tracks Santa" program came about. In 1955, a Sears store in Colorado Springs ran an ad in the local paper, saying that kids could call a phone number on Christmas Eve to have Santa's position around the world relayed to them. But, due to a misprint, the kids ended up accidentally calling the watch center of the Continental Air Defense Command (NORAD's predecessor). The senior watch officer initially thought it was a prank, but as more kids kept calling in, he decided to just roll with it. Now it's an annual tradition.

* Creator/ChuckPalahniuk tells the story of a time he was on a plane and the flight attendant said he'd figured out that ''Literature/FightClub'' was really about a group of guys watching two men have sex in a bath house. Pahlaniuk said his response was "Yeah, sure, why not?" Guy gave him free drinks for the rest of the flight.

** Also [[https://notalwaysright.com/working-off-the-clock/63729/ this]] lighthearted example, where an employee informs technical support that a previously reported technical problem was no longer present, expressing uncertainty as to whether the technician had fixed it or if the error had just resolved itself. The technician's reply is almost word-for-word the trope name.[[note]]Most modern operating systems (since Mac OS 9 and Windows 2000) have the ability to sync its time with an atomic clock on the internet at regular intervals, while Unix [=OSes=], owing to their often mission-critical nature, has had the feature for ''decades.''[[/note]]
* This is a tactic emergency personnel and police are increasingly being encouraged to use when dealing with people having delusions due to mental illness/other issues affecting their perception of reality to get them to cooperate if you have to bring them in for their own/other's safety. A classic one is if someone believes they are being hunted by the MilkmanConspiracy to offer to bring them to a "safe" place where they won't be harmed, usually the hospital, and to provide someone, usually a police officer, to "guard" them at the hospital itself, which establishes a sense of trust. There are however limits to this, such as not saying you see something someone is hallucinating, and your own safety should never be compromised in the process.
* [[http://www.dw.com/en/bus-stops-at-old-peoples-homes-take-patients-for-a-ride/a-3394237 Some old peoples' homes]] have started putting up fake bus stops so dementia patients can satisfy their need to "get away" or "go home" (even if they haven't lived in or even visited the place they're talking about for twenty years). Due to the deterioration of the brain that comes with dementia and Alzheimer's disease, nurses and other hospital workers find it difficult to reason with them, so they just direct them towards one of these fake bus stops so they can wait for a bus that will never come. Some wait for hours, then give up, saying they must have missed the bus and will try again later, though others will forget why they came here in the first place and let the nurse lead them back to their room. Almost of all them, however, report feeling more satisfied and generally happier, simply because they were able to go out and do something proactive, even if that something will be completely forgotten the next day. The creator of this fake bus stop program says that ''"The sense that they have the freedom to do what they feel they need to do is very soothing to patients."''

* The naming of the racehorce [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potoooooooo Potoooooooo.]] From the article, "Pot-8-Os acquired the strange spelling of his nickname through a transliteration error, when a stable lad was asked to write the original name, "Potatoes", on a feed bin. The lad's version, Potoooooooo, was said to [[ActuallyPrettyFunny amuse his lordship]] so he kept it." This horse went on to be a champion and is an ancestor of most modern Thoroughbreds (which is why The Other Wiki has an article about the animal).
* This, ultimately, was how UsefulNotes/EastGermany ended up reacting to the government decree that the borders would be open. They had meant for refugees only (i.e. people leaving and never coming back), and referred mostly to the East/West Germany border. At the press conference, an ill prepared functionary failed to stress these points and was asked by a western journalist if the Berlin Wall was to be opened immediately. The press secretary, not being fully briefed, invoked this trope as a response. Cue thousands of people showing up at the checkpoints demanding to be let through. Cue the end of East Germany a short time later.

* This is essentially why we have Command Gold rather than Command Green in ''Franchise/StarTrek''. The actual color of the Command Branch (Kirk, Sulu, Chekov) tunics was intended to be a lime green (possibly along with the blue and red to evoke the three primary colors of the cathode-ray tube), but due to studio lights interacting with the velour fabric and the inconsistent color timing, it showed up instead as a bright gold. Later productions decided not to even fight the perception and retconned the color as to always having been gold.

* This how the "NORAD Tracks Santa" program came about. In 1955, a Sears store in Colorado Springs ran an ad in the local paper, saying that kids could call a phone number on Christmas Eve to have Santa's position around the world relayed to them. But, due to a misprint, the kids ended up accidentally calling the watch center of the Continental Air Defense Command (NORAD's predecessor). The senior watch officer initially thought it was a prank, but as more kids kept calling in, he decided to just roll with it. Now it's annual tradition.
* There's a long-standing belief that [[MustStateIfYoureACop undercover police officers have to identify as such when asked]] in order to avoid entrapment in criminal cases. This is completely untrue; cops have the legal right to lie about their identities if it helps maintain their cover. This misguided belief comes from a misunderstanding of what legally constitiutes entrapment in court. To elaborate: entrapment is when a cop (or other law enforcement officer) induces another person into committing a crime when this person would have been unlikely to commit the crime had the cop not approached them. That being said, cops are in no hurry to correct people on this, since it helps with their job. If you ask an undercover cop to self-identify as such, they'll just say "No, I'm not a cop" and leave it at that. Not only does it ease the tension, but it allows this fake fact to keep spreading, and thus keep helping the cops.

* One comic from ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'' dubbed a stegosaur's tail spikes the Thagomizer, "after the late Thag Simmons". Paleontologists realized that the arrangement of spikes didn't actually have an official name, so they [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thagomizer adopted the term]].

* When [[UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant Hiram Ulysses Grant]] applied to West Point, his congressman sponsor mistook his mother's maiden name (Simpson) for his middle initial. Grant later tried to correct it, but [[https://www.nps.gov/people/ulysses-s-grant.htm changing it]] would require a new appointment at the academy. He was never fond of his initials anyway, which is why he initially [[https://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/courts/judicial-system/supreme-court-of-ohio/mjc/interest/grand-concourse/ulysses-s-grant/#:~:text=In%201839%20Grant%20was%20appointed,known%20by%20the%20initials%20H.U.G registered]] as Ulysses Hiram Grant.

* When young [[UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant Hiram Ulysses Grant]] applied to West Point, the congressman sponsoring him mistook his mother's maiden name (Simpson) as his middle initial. Grant tried to correct the error later on, but [[https://www.nps.gov/people/ulysses-s-grant.htm the name stuck]] when he learned it would require a new appointment at the academy. Besides, he was never fond of his initials, which is why he [[https://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/courts/judicial-system/supreme-court-of-ohio/mjc/interest/grand-concourse/ulysses-s-grant/#:~:text=In%201839%20Grant%20was%20appointed,known%20by%20the%20initials%20H.U.G registered]] as Ulysses Hiram Grant at first.

* When young [[UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant Hiram Ulysses Grant]] applied to West Point, the congressman sponsoring him mistook his mother's maiden name (Simpson) for his middle initial. Grant tried to correct the error, but [[https://www.nps.gov/people/ulysses-s-grant.htm the name stuck]] when he learned it would require a new appointment at the academy. Besides, he was never wild about his initials, hence why he [[https://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/courts/judicial-system/supreme-court-of-ohio/mjc/interest/grand-concourse/ulysses-s-grant/#:~:text=In%201839%20Grant%20was%20appointed,known%20by%20the%20initials%20H.U.G registered]] as Ulysses Hiram Grant at first.

* When young [[UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant Hiram Ulysses Grant]] applied to West Point, the congressman sponsoring him mistook his mother's maiden name (Simpson) for his middle initial. Grant later tried to correct the error, but [[https://www.nps.gov/people/ulysses-s-grant.htm the name stuck]] when he learned it would require a new appointment at the academy. Besides, he was never wild about his initials, hence why he [[https://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/courts/judicial-system/supreme-court-of-ohio/mjc/interest/grand-concourse/ulysses-s-grant/#:~:text=In%201839%20Grant%20was%20appointed,known%20by%20the%20initials%20H.U.G registered]] as Ulysses Hiram Grant at first.

* When young [[UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant Hiram Ulysses Grant]] applied to West Point, the congressman sponsoring him mistook his mother's maiden name (Simpson) for his middle initial. Grant later tried to correct the error, but [[https://www.nps.gov/people/ulysses-s-grant.htm the name stuck]] when he learned it would require a new appointment at the academy. Besides, he was never wild about his initials, hence why he [[https://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/courts/judicial-system/supreme-court-of-ohio/mjc/interest/grand-concourse/ulysses-s-grant/#:~:text=In%201839%20Grant%20was%20appointed,known%20by%20the%20initials%20H.U.G registered]] as Ulysses Hiram Grant.

* When young [[UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant Hiram Ulysses Grant]] applied to West Point, the congressman sponsoring him mistook his middle name for his first and mother's maiden name (Simpson) for his middle initial. Grant later tried to correct the error, but [[https://www.nps.gov/people/ulysses-s-grant.htm the name stuck]] when he learned it would require a new appointment at the academy. Besides, he was never wild about his initials, hence why he [[https://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/courts/judicial-system/supreme-court-of-ohio/mjc/interest/grand-concourse/ulysses-s-grant/#:~:text=In%201839%20Grant%20was%20appointed,known%20by%20the%20initials%20H.U.G registered]] as Ulysses Hiram Grant.

* When young [[UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant Hiram Ulysses Grant]] applied to West Point, the congressman sponsoring him mistook his middle name for his first and mother's maiden name (Simpson) for his middle initial. Grant later tried to correct the error, but [[https://www.nps.gov/people/ulysses-s-grant.htm the name stuck]] when he learned it would require a new appointment at the academy. Besides, he was never wild about his initials, hence why he [[https://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/courts/judicial-system/supreme-court-of-ohio/mjc/interest/grand-concourse/ulysses-s-grant/#:~:text=Due%20to%20a%20mistake%20by,Point%20was%20%22Uncle%20Sam.%22 registered]] as Ulysses Hiram Grant.

* When young [[UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant Hiram Ulysses Grant]] applied to West Point, the congressman sponsoring him mistook his middle name for his first and mother's maiden name (Simpson) for his middle initial. Grant later tried to correct the error, but the name stuck when he realized it would require a new appointment at the academy.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'', Tidus is pulled from his home of Zanarkand to Spira by the monster Sin. When he talks about the Zanarkand he knows, the native people considered him crazy. To thim, Zanarkand is an ancient ruin, not the sprawling metropolis described to them. When Tidus mentions having been near Sin, Wakka believes that's why he's ignorant of Spira and talking nonsense; Sin produces a toxin that badly disorients people until it wears off. It becomes Tidus' go-to excuse for when he reveals how ignorant of the world he is to hide his true nature.

* In the pilot episode of ''Series/IZombie'', Liv has trouble explaining why she knows the identity of the dead Jane Doe when her boss and the newbie homicide detective were just discussing how they haven't had any luck ID'ing her. Obviously, she can't just tell the detective that she's a zombie, and she started working at the morgue so she could eat the brains of the recently deceased people who are brought in for autopsies, and she can sometimes get flashes of memory from those brains.

** To his credit, the detective knows there's more going on than what's being told, although he'd never guess she's actually a zombie.

** In the canon ''EGS: NP'' strip "Who is Ellen? Part 2", Ellen is running a pre-written RPG but invents a random cleric when the party unexpectedly needs healing during an early scene, explaining that he's a friend of the guy who hired them to find a chicken-napper. The group finds the presence of the cleric, when the crime only took place because a guard ''just happened'' to be sick, to be highly suspicious, and Ellen immediately decides that this is a ''much'' better idea than the villain being some rando who took advantage of a guard ''actually'' just happening to be sick that day.

* Not long into ''VideoGame/SpiderManPS4'', Otto Octavius catches Peter working on his damaged costume, and is stunned to realize that his lab assistant is...the guy who designs Spider-Man's equipment. Peter goes along with this. [[spoiler:During the climax, however, Otto reveals he knows the truth, so either he worked it out or was only ever sparing Peter's feelings.]]

* Chargesdotcomdotbr had a story arc titled "My Girl", where a young man was dating a woman who was MtF transgender. The young man's mother, who used to be friends with her when she identified as male, told the now her to end the relationship. When she learned she's now wealthy, she decided to ask for a DNA test. The young man didn't understand. When a friend of his came up with a crazy theory regarding aliens, his other friends decided to invoke the trope.

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'':

* When young [[UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant Hiram Ulysses Grant]] applied to West Point, the congressman who was sponsoring him got a little confused, assuming his middle name was his first and believing his mother's maiden name (Simpson) was his middle initial. Grant later tried to correct the error but when he realized it will require a new appointment at the academy, the name stuck.

* When young [[UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant Hiram Ulysses Grant]] applied to West Point, the congressman who was sponsoring him got a little confused, assuming his middle name was his first and believing his mother's maiden name (Simpson) was his middle initial. Grant tried to correct the error at first but when he realized it could get him kicked out of the academy, the name stuck.

'''[[SpoonyBard Elan]]:''' Wait -- are you saying that you're going to research the spell "Haste" if I don't distract you anymore?\\
'''[[SquishyWizard Vaarsuvius]]:''' Yes, that is it exactly. You have perfectly gleaned my true intentions, well done. Have a cookie.

* When young [[UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant Hiram Ulysses Grant]] applied to West Point, the congressman who was sponsoring him got a little confused, assuming his middle name was his first and believing his mother's maiden name (Simpson) was his middle initial. Grant tried to correct the error at first but upon realizing it could get him kicked out of the academy, the name stuck.

* When young [[UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant Hiram Ulysses Grant]] applied to West Point, the congressman who was sponsoring him got a little confused, assuming his middle name was his first and believing his mother's maiden name (Simpson) was his middle initial. Grant rolled along with it because he has always been embarrassed by his initials.

* When young [[UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant Hiram Ulysses Grant]] applied to West Point, the congressman who was sponsoring him got a little confused, assuming his middle name was his first and believing his mother's maiden name (Simpson) was his middle initial. Grant just rolled along with it as he was always embarrassed by his initials.

* When young [[UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant Hiram Ulysses Grant]] applied to West Point, the congressman who was sponsoring him got a little confused, assuming his middle name was his first and believing his mother's maiden name (Simpson) was his middle initial. Rather than correct the error, Grant decided to just roll with it, as he was never wild about his embarrassing initials anyway.