"Any attack made by the rebels would be a useless gesture, no matter what technical data they've obtained! This station is now the ultimate power in the universe!"
Some things just shouldn't be said, even in jest. Taunting a monster or bullying a dragon is likely to end badly. Monologuing will invariably give The Hero the time he needs to defeat you. And then there's this trope.
Tempting Fate is when a character says something that dares the universe into making things miserable for them, and the universe takes them up on the challenge. Oftentimes, the character is commenting on how they've hit Rock Bottom and how things couldn't possibly get any worse — right before things doget worse. Conversely, they may talk about how things are absolutely perfect, only for their world to come crashing down five seconds later.
And sometimes tempting fate can get downright lethal. For example, that guy in every horror movie who tells his friends "I'll be right back" is most assuredly not going to be back. Or that guy in every war movie who shows that picture of his family to the others and expresses his hope to get through this and make it back home to them, which all but ensures that he will not make it. Or that veteran cop in every action movie who's just several days away from Retirement, and thus doomed to be gunned down in his final case. Finagle's Law can be a bitch.
The fate-tempting words may be followed up by a Genre Savvy friend saying "You Just HAD To Say It!"
Compare Schmuck Bait. For the supertrope to this, see Trope Telegraphing.
Alternatively, naming your ship "Titanic" will send it to a watery grave, usually on its maiden voyage.
Alternatively, naming your computer "Skynet" will lead it to rebel against humanity and Take Over the World — and that goes double for supercomputers named Skynet.
"...wouldn't ask him/her for help if he/she was the last person on Earth/alive!" — He or she will be the last person alive.
"That lot? Harmless bunch of cranks." — No, they're the next group of baddies you'll have to deal with.
"With the safety system fully engaged, the weapon couldn't possibly be fired accidentally." — The fireworks will start when the first person presses the little switch.
"Over my dead body!" / "You'll have it when you pry it from my cold, dead, lifeless fingers!" / "You'll have to kill me first!" — That can be arranged.
"Now its power is mine!!!" — Seconds later, the villain is killed by the Artifact of Doom
"I missed you so much! Oh, now that we're together, we'll never be parted again!" — Yeah, sure. See how well that works out. And when you inevitably get kidnapped or something, don't say we didn't warn you.
In Digimon Savers episode 10, Masaru comes under the influence of a curse that Chika put on him (though it turns out to be a digimon that just so happened to have heard her when she was wishing all these bad things on her brother). The following exchange occurs:
Touma: From the looks of that signpost, it seems as though Chika-chan has used some sort of magic to put a curse on you. Masaru: A curse? Touma: It's exactly as Chika had said. Slipping, falling down, getting hit... and now, running into a signpost. Gaomon: And the next one was falling from a bridge, right Master? Masaru: That'll never happen! I mean, there aren't even any bridges near here! (Chopsticks*
roll onto Masaru's path; he slips and falls) Touma: o.0' He fell... from chopsticks...
A prime example comes in volume 14 of Mahou Sensei Negima! After finding out about the pacts some of her classmates have made with Negi, Meta Guy Chisame jokes about making a pact and fighting Robot Girl Chachamaru; in reality, she most definitely wants to be normal. Naturally, she ends up having to do just that by the very next day. At least, very next day from the perspective of a normal person. Time Travel was involved, and depending on how you look at it, it could have been as long as a week.
A subtler example during the Battle of Mahora between protagonist Negi Springfield and current Big Bad: Negi tells her to surrender, as he had just destroyed the technology that allowed her to fight equally with a mage like him. "You can't beat me, not without magic!" Cue fireball.
A more humorous example occurs way back in chapter 3; Ayaka is talking about how Negi needs someone with a " motherly figure" to take care of him, ending with "and who's got more of a figure than me!?" Cue the four bustiest girls in the class entering the room.
Jack Rakan decided to do Dark Magic to show Negi what happens when one is not compatible saying, it's fine I'm me and I'm invincible. Cue giant explosion and 2-3 chapters of Jack Rakan actually in bandages. Also every time he says he is invincible during that time he gains high pressure blood.
And at the recent chapters... after being ridiculously hit by a bullet that renders his mana useless and being targeted by the FREAKING WHOLE SCHOOL...
Negi: I'll have to be especially careful not to run into the martial artists...
Cue Ku Fei.
Negi: (Well I guess if it's Ku Fei-san...)Are... you... in this too?
Ku Fei: Yes.
Cue love declaration. Two girls in one day, good job Negi!
Naruto: "It's an impenetrable defense. That's why, until now, no one has even been able to lay a scratch on Gaara." Uttered by Kankuro in ep. 48 of the first anime, Chuunin Exam arc. Sure enough, Gaara's next opponent, Rock Lee, does a lot more than just lay a scratch on him.
No, not really. While Rock Lee throws Gaara around for a few moments (at the cost of crippling himself), all of his blows are stopped by Gaara's defense, so the latter walks away from battle still unscratched (bruised, maybe).
From the first Shippuuden movie (the one with the Priestess Shion), where Naruto is fighting the Quirky Miniboss Squad. "Hah! That's the weakest fire jutsu I've ever seen!" Cue the wind jutsu, which supercharges the fire one and turns a ring of flame into a blazing maelstrom.
In episode 11 of Neon Genesis Evangelion, after the Tokyo-3 energy supply is sabotaged, Fuyutski says that it would be a disaster if an Angel attacked right now. Which is exactly what happens.
This could actually be a subversion because it's explained later on that he and SEELE know the specific times when the Angels will attack.
Aoba: I just hope they don't start using BC weapons! Things could get pretty ugly... Hyuuga: Yeah, that or N2 mines — (BOOM) Aoba: Speak of the devil...! Hyuuga: Damn! Haven't they ever heard of moderation?! Fuyutsuki: That was a little much... (the JSSDF begins a Macross Missile Massacre on the geofront)
In episode 22, Asuka complains about how the Angel hasn't shown up — just before she gets hit by its Mind Rape beam.
In Hayate the Combat Butler, Maria gives Hayate an expensive cashmere jacket to wear out in public and explains very clearly how getting it ruined will likely get him fired. After avoiding all manner of spills and sword-wielding thugs that are all clearly stated to "stain/ruin/cut cashmere very well", he tries to avoid falling into "the kind of pond that ruins cashmere coats" during an attempt to "rescue" Isumi from her servants by taking it off before he hits the water... and promptly ripping it to shreds on a nearby hanging tree.
Later on in the series, Sakuya builds a ship that is an exact replication of the Titanic. It doesn't fare well.
Sakuya also mentioned "unless terrorists hijack"... Guess what happens?
Parodied and subverted in an episode of Pucca. The introduction of the ship Gigantic by the captain includes calling her "unsinkable" three times, and the floor show in the dining hall involves a song including the lyrics "Because the ship can never sink." She hits the iceberg without incident, prompting the captain to cry "I told you it was unsinkable!" Later Double Subverted.
In Monster, after miraculously surviving a suicide run against four armed thugs, Martin pulls out a cigarette and mutters, "I'm surprised I lived through that." Naturally, this is the cue for the guy he missed to fatally shoot him in the stomach.
Roberto laughs at Tenma, telling him that he won't shoot him. Guess what happens next.
Subverted at least once in Naruto Abridged. Two ninja guards discuss their hatred of giant snakes that pop out of nowhere and kill you. Naturally, a giant snake pops out of nowhere and destroys the guard tower... next to them.
"I heard the name 'Blaster System' and I thought it was some high-tech awesomeness, but that's just stupid. Hey, Your Majesty? Your mom's a dumbass." Then it hit herfull in the face. My oh my....
In one episode of A's, Amy notes how unlikely it would be to have an emergency that she would have to deal with ... and one comes up before she even finishes the sentence.
In another episode of A's, Shamal finds out Nanoha and Fate are Hayate's friends, and want to visit her in the hospital, which would potentially result in their finding out about her being the master of the Book of Darkness. Signum says, "As long as they don't run into us there, it'll be fine." Guess what happens next episode...
Super Gals episode 39. Ran and Tatsuki (not to mention ten plus other guys) find a missing monkey, which is wearing Tatsuki's scarf, that has just been said to collect a 50,000 yen reward. You see them chasing it and are then shown Ran's older brother:
Yamoto:What a peaceful Christmas Eve. Looks like I'll get to go on a date with Miyu today without any mishaps.
Alas, what he had in mind was not what happened.
Two episodes from the end of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, Mu la Flaga reassures Murrue Ramius just before a battle by promising, "I'll be right back, with victory in hand." He isn't.
Not until Destiny, anyway.
Discussed and subverted in Azumanga Daioh, when Osaka predicts that their school trip to Okinawa will be "tons of fun" and Chiyo agrees, which it does turn out to be, on the whole. However, right after she says it, the image freezes and the background fades to black:
Tomo: At that time, they never would have dreamed... it would turn out to be such a miserable trip. Or something. Yomi: Enough with the narration!
During the final showdown with Sailor Moon and Chibi-Usa on one side and the big scary skeleton guy Death Fantom on the other, Fantom repeatedly claims that he is eternally immortal. Then he dies.
After dodging a Rain of Arrows, one of the villains in Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust mutters "That was close..." seconds before the last arrow catches him through the neck.
Fellow robot Mechazawa introduces his little brother Mechazawa Beta in Cromartie High School. "I tell ya, this kid is tough! I guess that kinda stuff runs in the family. Any of you wanna try goin' one-on-one with him? Ha ha! As if!" Crunch. Gorilla crushes the poor tyke underfoot.
Characters in Yu-Gi-Oh! have a tendency to say things like:
Generic Badguy: Oh no, I hope his random trap card with a 1 in 10 chance of hitting me doesn't hit me. If that happened I'd totally lose! (gets hit) Oh no, I just lost! Generic Henchman: Hah, you need to be really lucky to beat my unbeatable strategy! (3 minutes later) Oh no, what are the chances that you had one overly specific card in your deck to beat my strategy?!
Roba: No! If Jinzo hits my Reflect Bounder, it's all over for me! (Jinzo hits Reflect Bounder and both explode) Roba: No! Jinzo has hit my Reflect Bounder, and it is all over for me!
Could be combined with famous last words, but in episode 134 of the dub, when Yugi prepares his final attack, we get this little line from Kaiba:
Kaiba: YUGI! I WILL NOT BE DEFEATED AT MY OWN TOURNAMENT!!!
The Fate/stay nightVisual Novel does this: in the Unlimited Blade Works route, Shirou explicitly states that he cannot die from projecting swords, as it is the one thing he can do (he even considers himself a circuit made solely for that purpose). Three guesses on what happens in the Heaven's Feel route.
In the manga Gun Blaze West, villain "Target" Kevin has a prominent tattoo of a target right over his heart and never wears a shirt so he can show it off. This is later revealed to be the object of a game; He and an opponent shoot at targets on each other's bodies. The fact that he shows his tattoo so proudly illustrates that he never loses.
Code Geass R2 has the rather fantastic example of "Don't worry...It will be impossible for Zero to destroy this place (Tokyo) like last time!" Which is technically true...
The dub makes it clear that they're specifically referring to Zero causing the settlement to collapse in order to weaken the forces defending it, but even before the FLEIJA blast, a Gefion Disturber goes off and disables all the older Knightmare Frames.
There was also when Milly assured Nina there won't be any Elevens at the hotel where they will be staying. They get taken hostage by the JLF.
The most infamous example of this would have to be episode 22 of the first season: "If I were to say 'Kill all of the Japanese' you would be forced to obey..." Too bad Lelouch didn't realize that his Geass had turned permanently "on" when he mentioned this to Euphemia. Cue one of the most tragic and influential events in the whole series.
In the manga Fullmetal Alchemist, one of the members of the top brass, while it is trying to handle Roy's coup d'état, is getting worried about their opposition's effectiveness. Another member says that it's not like they have any tanks with them. Guess what reinforcements from Briggs provides?
Maes Hughes mentions to Envy that he has a wife and kid waiting at home. Cue the Fatal Family Photo.
In Eureka Seven, members of the military tend to say things like "This place is so heavily fortified, nobody would ever try to invade!" just before the Gekko shows up.
A notorious example of the "You Just Had to Say It" variety occurs in Elfen Lied, where Bando, after being dismembered by Lucy (who has psychic powers that manifest as hands that can cut/grab/rip apart anything within a 2-meter radius) says that he'd kill her the next time he saw her. She made sure he wouldn't ''see'' her.. He Got Better by becoming half-robot.
From Red Eyes. A sergeant, under suppression fire, asking "WHAT?!? YOU ONLY SEND A SINGLE PLATOON HERE?!? A platoon that including Graham"Genocide"Millshimself.
Fate/stay night's anime has a fun one. In the grand battle between Archer and Berserker, Archer blows the light in the building they're fighting in. When Berserker and Ilya find him, a beam of moonlight has cast itself over him for virtually no reason and poor Ilya is arrogant enough to say "Looks like the lunar goddess isn't blessing you." Oh, how wrongyouare.
In Weiss Kreuz, when a devastated Ouka tells Omi that they're half-siblings, wrecking their romantic prospects, he immediately tries to comfort her by telling her how happy he is to have found a family after being alone for so long, hugging her and ending on "We'll be together forever..." No. No,youwon't.
A slightly less obvious version from Mai Hime: It was established that whomever the Hime's care the most about is screwed the moment their Child/monster is destroyed. Two Hime's do not have a person shown on-screen that they particularly care about. But they're kind enough to tell us that they do have someone, and say who it is. Their monsters get destroyed the very same episode. Nao's mother goes from first-mentioned to vaporized in less than 3 minutes
In Area 88, the character Boris (known by others as "The Angel of Death") has a reputation of always returning to base alone after a mission, no matter how many pilots go up with him. In the anime, one guy in a flight of four (plus Boris) gets cocky: "We flew with Boris 'The Angel of Death' and survived!" SAMs kill his sorry ass and two other guys 7 seconds later, leaving only Boris to head back to base.
In the fourth episode of Black Butler Ciel Phantomhive had to disguise himself as a girl to get to a serial killer at a fancy party. He says, "Good thing Elizabeth isn't here. I'd hate to have her see me like this." Guess who actually was there?
In Bizenghast, the characters are exploring what looks like a labyrinth. Edaniel and Edrear remind Dinah and Vincent to stay together and that they don't want to lose anyone down there. When they lose Dinah, Vincent goes to look for her, even using the exact phrase "I'll be right back!" Subverted since while everyone except Edaniel falls victim to whatever is in there, they all survive.
Ghost in the Shell rarely follows the tropes that anyone who's at least a bit Genre Savvy would see from miles away. However, an early episode of Stand Alone Complex mentions that the prime minister was put in her position because she lacked the ambition to interfere with the directions of the people in charge.
In Darker than Black a verbal bouncer at USA Embassy gates vehemently opposed letting a few Tokyo Police representatives to proceed on his territory with attempts to find clues about recent bombing series. At "Don't test my patience!" stage he was rudely interrupted by a loud BOOM—from the inside.
Pokémon Special: Aqua Admin Ark walks home with the award for Biggest Fate-Tempting Blunder, though other characters in other Pokémon works do their fair share from time to time. How big was his blunder?
"You've been in the water for three— no, four minutes. Are you trying to set a world record or something?!" "Oh? Iron Defense? You may have broken Sharpedo's fangs, but you're not out of danger yet... far from it." "Our first task as Admins has been completed." (Evil Laugh)
Why are all of these relevant? The first one is done after flooding a locked, airtight cable car in an attempt to kill Sapphire, who demonstrated physical prowess beyond the average peon the last time they met. The second was when she called out her Lairon to break Sharpedo's teeth in what was seemingly self-defense. And the third came when she appeared to have drowned... in reality, she broke the teeth off with the express intent of using them to pop a hole in the glass and drain all that water out, giving her and Flannery a way to breathe and allow her to mount a counteroffensive. Cue a Did You Actually Believe? from Sapphire as a retort to the Evil Gloating and an extremely justified Oh Crap from Ark, who now knows just how many ways he happens to be boned.
Earlier in the GSC arc, two security guards casually remark what a terrible thing it would be for the Magnet Train to be hijacked, but that it would be impossible to hack the system. Cue their Oh Crap faces seconds before being knocked out by Team Rocket grunts.
Hidamari Sketch. "Today I will not forget to buy new batteries for my clock." Yuno's resolve is helped by the fact that the clock she's borrowing uses as its alarm the sound of a woman screaming as she's being (or about to be) murdered. Even the male gazer extraordinaire would likely find that more than counters the fact that one of the pictures on it is a close-up of boobs. (Anime Anatomy, of course.) But between the lottery tickets, the visit from a former student of Yoshinoya's, and the discovery of abandoned art, she completely forgot until they went to bed that night...
Hanaukyo Maid TaiLa Verité episode 7. Ryuuka is standing in an underground tunnel which has shown itself to be trapped. She says "I'm not like Taro. There's no way I'm going to do anything dumb." Immediately thereafter she accidentally pushes a brick into the wall with her elbow, causing a metal pan to drop from the ceiling onto Taro's head. Lampshaded by Ryuuka herself immediately afterward: "Boy, I sure set myself up."
Every Apostle in Berserk pulls this one. "No mere human could compete with an Apostle!" Then Guts horribly kills them.
A rather memorable example comes from an unlucky group of soldiers. The commander of said soldiers insists that Guts reputation as a "Hundred man slayer" couldn't possibly be true, or at the very least, an exaggeration. Its not. May we also point out during this discussion, Guts is beyond a state of unstoppable rage after finding poor Griffith in his tortured state. They didn't stand a chance.
In Holyland, some Sawako gangsters are saying that after beating up Shinichi they would go after Shougo or Yuu. Cue the former punching one of their own into the room they're in.
In the Axis Powers Hetalia movie, Russia, China, and America are undercover in an UFO trying to find a way to defeat the Pict aliens when they come across a room full of complicated controls. Russia decides to pull a suspicious red lever against the warnings of China, and says:
Nothing bad can possibly happen, so...
He ends up activating an alarm that alerts all the aliens in the UFO and results in the three nations being chased around by aliens.
A group of assassins taunts their victims "What difference can changing your glasses make? Even without glasses, you can see your imminent death." Being Gintama, it turns out that the glasses shoot eye beams, make combat tentacles, predict enemy moves, and transform their user into a magical girl.
In Ao No Exorcist episode 10, this happens.
Guard: "It's not like it's unchained and will return to its original demon form, right?"
Cue the cat turns back into its original demon form off-screen.
Somewhere around a third into episode 5 of Toradora!: "Well, it's not like we'll ever be seeing her again." Oh yes you will. Tomorrow. And for another two. Freaking. Years.
Urk: Cheer up, Paperinik. Things could be worse. Paperinik: Excuse me? Things could be worse? We're stranded in a wood deep in enemy territory, with no means of transport, no weapons, no food and it's at least fifty degrees below freezing point! How could it get any worse than this? Urk: It could be snowing. (snow starts falling) Paperinik: Are you satisfied now? Urk: Well, at least there aren't any wild animals around. (wolves howl in the distance)
Minor Captain America malcontent "Bull's Eye" was a villainous agent of HYDRA and an ace marksman who had a strong target motif in his costume. Yes, he was eventually killed when someone shot him directly through the bullseye on his chest.
Now there's the merc/murderer/Psycho for Hire Bullseye. His cotume has a bullseye on his forehead. why? Becuase he also has one carved there. He has a target on his head out of costume (subverted when he spent a year and a half real-time dressed as Hawkeye).
Anytime you hear a supervillain say anything along the lines of "Batman"? He doesn't even have any powers!" Expect a Curb-Stomp Battle.
There's the similarly related "Batman? He's just an urban legend!" or the like, although this is generally more for mooks.
The Jedi-killing bounty hunter Durge is practically begging to die with this line:
"You think that was going to stop me?!? I was once buried alive for sixty years! If that didn't kill me... if the Sith and the Mandalorians and the Bloodboilers of Kragis couldn't kill me — then you will not kill me!"
In Marvel: The Lost Generation, the Black Fox tells his First Line teammate Yankee Clipper that he's going to propose to his girlfriend and retire immediately. Black Fox is all smiles and sunshine, extremely optimistic about the new life before him. Before he gets the chance to pop the question, a supervillain murders his girl.
Garfield likes to play with this trope. If someone says things can't get worse, they will (usually with Garfield warning not to say it). However, if a character admits things could get worse, they get worse.
In December, 15, 2011, Garfield told a spider that was under a mistletoe to forget it and that he'd rather kiss a dog. Odie then showed up.
In The Order, college baseball and track star "Calamity" James Wa was described on the cover of Sports Illustrated as "The Boy Most Likely to Succeed." And his nickname is "Calamity". He got into a car accident on the way to a state finals meet... and lost his legs. Keep in mind that James went into engineering instead of sports afterwards, and developed advanced prosthetic legs that made him a millionaire by the age of 22, so by all measures he has succeeded, but... it's not the same.
In Issue 11 in the Transformers Ongoing comic Vortex hoped that the Autobots would show up so he could scrap them. Cue Optimus Prime plowing through the wall ramming him.
U.S. Acresplayed with this trope when it was a beautiful day and Orson said even Lanolin couldn't ruin it. To prove him wrong, she yelled she had just washed her car. It started raining soon after.
Vegeta: They've broken my body... I've failed in my mission to get the Dragon Balls... I've even lost my tail... But at least, it can't get any worse from here... Ghost Nappa: Vegeeeetaaa... Vegeeeetaaa... Vegeta: W-What? Ghost Nappa:I'm haunting you! Vegeta:NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooo!
Krillin: We won't ever have to see him again! (Vegeta falls next to Krillin) Krillin: ... alive again. I meant we won't ever have to see him alive again! (naturally, Vegeta is alive)
"That's right. I'm your white mage. And nobody fucks with the white mage." Three guesses as to what happens immediately afterwards.
The frigate officer in the Warhammer 40K fan-film Damnatus — "We have never arrived too late before."
In Smashtasm there is a running gag wherein a character will say: "There's no way that ((insert bad thing)), especially not right now! Super64, being Genre Savvy, tries to invoke this trope when he gets captured, saying:
There's no way I could get out of here. Especially not right now."
Nene stood, raised her arms to the sky, and screamed out, "Good god, what else could go right?" She sat down and grinned. "It always seems to work the other way, so I figured, what the hey?"
The Lord of the Rings metafic epic The Official Fanfiction University of Middle Earth tackles this in an early chapter, when the heroine spends a day with everything going wrong determinedly resisting the temptation to demand what else could go wrong ("for as everyone know, that is an invitation to get a demonstration of just what else can go wrong. The gods/God/evil forces/whatever you believed in were nothing if not equipped with a sense of irony. It's a vital God-quality, that."), until one thing too many does and she lets it slip. She then yells out that she didn't mean it... to no avail.
Tristan: I sure hope we don't encounter any more intrusive subplots. Magnum: Did somebody say "intrusive subplot"? Tristan: Oh, son of a bitch!
On the blimp:
Doctor: I'm glad I have such a long and villain-free life ahead of me. Melvin: Hi there. Could I get a hug? Dr. Feelgood: A hug? Sure, I don't see why not. (the sounds of chainsaw revving can be heard) Oh my god, it burns, it burns!
In the 26th video of Ultra J Man's Let's PlayI Wanna Be the Guy, he is still angry for a previous crash he had, and he declares "I get to the end, I beat The Guy, and it fucking crashes. That's how it's gonna end!"Guess what happens.
Profound Moments in Left 4 Dead 2: "I'm gonna do this entire campaign with 1 HP and beat the shit out of everything with a first aid kit."
Dornkirk: You can't destroy it you silly girl! It's protected by causality itself! There isn't a force in the world that can possibly destroy it. (Vansmashes through) Dornkirk: ... except for that.
During the outtakes from the third Rival battle: "What the heck was I worried about, it's a freaking Rattata." Said Rattata then uses Quick Attack, gets a critical hit, and kills off his last Pokémon. "WHAT?! WHAT?! WHAT?!"
In Awesomeness Of The Ocarina this trope is inverted and discussed. "Even though Navi tempted fate with the dreaded "It can't get any worse" stock phrase, things actually got better. Link noticed this, but he didn't want to push his luck."
Subverted in episode 45 of Pretty Cure Heavy Metal. After taking a single whiff of a cigarette, Shugo says she doesn't want to get addicted. Guess what? She's remained smoke-free ever since.
Lampshaded in Harry Potter And The Methods Of Rationality during the Stanford Prison Experiment arc. Dumbledore declared himself invincible and an Azkaban guard asks in astonished horror if he really just said that. Her commander says that he can get away with it since not even fate takes Dumbledore seriously anymore.
In A Hero, the second chapter has Dalek Sec watching Homura battle Walpurgisnacht from afar, and concluding that the Witch isn't looking his way, and wouldn't attack him. Fortunately, Sec's Genre Savvy enough to realize what he just did, which gives him just enough time to learn that a horde of familiars are heading his way.
This is referenced in The Man With No Name while some characters are infiltrating the enemy stronghold. It ultimately ends up subverted, however; despite the Doctor's expectations, nothing of the sort happens.
Inara: They seem to be expecting an auditor.
The Doctor: Good. No one will get too fussed when we go about asking nosy questions then.
Inara: As long as the real auditors don't show up, we should be alright.
Corpse Bride does this twice. First, the opening song, "According to Plan", is all about how "every tiny microscopic little thing" must be just perfect for the wedding. You couldn't be asking for it more. Then, later, when Barkis is making his wedding toast, he says, "No force on Earth can tear us apart!" Cue the invasion of the walking dead.
Toy Story: "'It's safer in the cockpit than the cargo area'... what an idiot."
Not to mention, "What could possibly be worse than you?" Subverted in the sequel, where the toys and the new puppy have become friends.
The Incredibles: "We're superheroes. What could happen?" Actually happens twice, with the same result.
Finding Nemo: "No, I've never met a shark, and I don't plan to."..."Well, if I ever meet a sea turtle, I'll ask him... right after I'm done talking to the shark."
To be fair, she had already made it past a number of obstacles — being a young, black, poor, woman... It was just that the magic took it to a whole new level of obstacles, and she couldn't have anticipated that!
In the Hungarian cult film Cat City, mice are on the good side, and cats are criminals. At the beginning, a bank clerk assures a worrying client that to this bank, cats could only break into with a tank. Guess what happens next.
Lampshaded later when Jessica says the only reason she knocked him out and stuffed him in the trunk of a car was because she didn't want him getting hurt. Lampshadeded again when Eddie responds with obvious irony, "Yeah, that makes perfect sense."
Well, it would make perfect sense to a toon.
The Earthworm in James and the Giant Peach, as he ponders what kind of bait would be good for seagulls.... ahem.
Kung Fu Panda: "Escape from Chor-Gom Prison is IMPOSSIBLE!" Tai Lung likes a challenge
A Bug's Life has Hopper tempt fate upon seeing a bird standing right above him. To be fair, fate was Crying Wolf earlier on, seeing as how the last bird Hopper saw before then turned out to be a fake one designed by Flik, and said bird showed up while Hopper was trying to strangle Flik. Still, it is interesting that his last words (aside from the screaming) were being said to Flik upon them seeing said bird...
Yellow Submarine. Ringo says "Nothing ever happens to me." Cue the title vehicle's appearance.
The Aristocats: "You're going to Timbuktu, if it's the last thing I do!" (cue a bunch of alley cats led by Thomas O'Malley subduing Edgar, then shoving him into the very crate he was going to use to send Duchess and her kittens to Timbuktu, and as a result, it's now Edgar that's the one going to Timbuktu)
Towards the end of Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame, while Esmeralda is holding Quasimodo up over the edge of a building, while Frollo close by is standing, above a pool of molten copper, on a stone gargoyle, while carrying a sword, and says "and he shall smite the wicked, and plunge them into the fiery pit!" Remember what happened after that?
This is basically the entire premise of the song "I Just Can't Wait to be King" from the film The Lion King. Unfortunately, becoming king has a fairly drastic prerequisite...
The song "There Are No Cats in America" from An American Tail. However, it turns out that there are cats in America.
Films — Live-Action
A crooked police lieutenant to Jack Napier near Batman's beginning: "The future? You mean when you run the show? You ain't got no future, Jack!" (This culminates in an Ironic Echo at the factory, when Napier kills the lieutenant with a single shot.)
Taken to ridiculous heights in Hot Shots!. One character, appropriately named "Dead Meat" Thompsonreceives a visit from his wife as he's preparing to fly a training mission, and what follows is an enormous list of things he has to live for, including his beautiful wife, that he's carrying his (unsigned) life insurance papers with him, and that he's figured out the real culprits in the Kennedy assassination but hasn't told anyone and has the evidence on him. No, he doesn't make it back home...
He also breaks a mirror, walks under a ladder, and has a black cat cross his path. Also, his kids are scraping asbestos off the pipes back home, so it's apparently hereditary.
Happens subtly in Full Metal Jacket. "I am f**king bored to death, man!" Not for long, you aren't.
High Priestess: Mr Gorsky, when I kill, I kill for good. Gorsky: Are you threatening me? High Priestess: Bless your soul. Gorsky: You'll need a nuke to kill me! (Gorsky's security system detects an incoming missile) Gorsky: Bitch...
Bullshot (1983). Absent-Minded Professor Fenton: "Oh you Scotland Yard chaps see spies behind every bush. What could possibly happen out here in the English countryside?" Cue dramatic music and Otto von Bruno and Fraulein Lenya smirking evilly behind the bushes. After they've successfully kidnapped the Professor, von Bruno boasts: "No-one can stop us now!" Cue dramatic music and the hero "Bullshot" Crummond, his Lantern Jaw of Justice defiantly out-thrust.
Alfalfa:Then the clouds opened up and God said, "I hate you, Alfalfa!"'''
In The Film of the Book of A Clockwork Orange, Alex is being interviewed while being fed by the widower of the woman he raped in front of him. During the interview, he says, "I get the feeling something bad is going to happen." Two seconds later, he's out like a light.
In The Dark Knight, the Joker is shooting at an armored truck using handguns and a shotgun when someone on the inside remarks that he's going to need something a lot bigger to get through it. Cue the rocket launcher.
Later in that same scene, the Joker's semi and the Batpod are playing chicken when Batman fires something. The Joker says, "He missed!" — except what Batman fired was a cable, which he uses to pull a snowspeeder and jackknife the truck into the air.
Batman: One man or the entire mob? He can wait. Maroni: Some two-bit whackjob, wears a cheap purple suit and makeup. He's nobody, he's not our problem....
Though the rest of the cast are hardly innocent of this, Juno tempts fate at least five times in The Descent:
"Everything's going to be fine. Better — it's going to be great!" "You want adventure Holly, when have I ever let you down? Tomorrow's going to be awesome." "Relax, I've never been lost in my life!" "We'll be fine." "It's about us. Getting back to what we used to be."
After Sarah becomes stuck in a tight cave tunnel, Beth tries to calm her down by essentially telling her that this is the worst thing that will happen to her, and everything will be alright after she calms down and works herself free. Things get MUCH worse.
Particularly cruel of fate in this instance, as when Beth says "the worst thing that could've happened to you has already happened" it seems like she's referring to the brutal deaths of her husband and daughter. Fate looks at this poor woman and says "Nope. Better kill all of her friends too."
Fantastic Four gives Reed Richards the line, "A few days in space, what's the worst that could happen?", sarcastically echoed by Ben after turning into The Thing.
Sarah tells the Goblin King that his Labyrinth is "a piece of cake." The results are unfortunate.
"It's not fair!" also means something has gone awry. Jareth even lampshades it at one point: "You say that so often. I wonder what your basis for comparison is."
While passing through the goblin city Sarah says "I think we're gonna make it" and Hoggle replies "Piece of cake". The goblins immediately appear and attack.
In The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Aragorn asks the Pirates to turn back. Their response: "Ha! and whose army?" Cue the Undead Army's arrival.
And a hobbit. Merry struck the first, and arguably most important, blow.
Um...it gave her an opening, sure, but I think the king would have recovered. I'm pretty sure the blow that killed him was the one to the face.
In the film, probably. In the book, Tolkien makes it pretty clear the nature of the sword Merry was using, specially created to slay Nazgul, made it very likely more important than, yes, even the sword to the face.
"Not by the hand of man shall he fall." Oh, that makes him sooo much safer. They only left out, let's see, women, children, hobbits, elves, wizards, An ear infection, giant eagles, Ents, Sauron, other Nazgûl, dragons...in short, many, many things that are more likely to kill him than a puny man and a few that aren't.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers: The Battle of Helm's Deep is going well, initially, and King Theoden asks, "Is this it? Is this all you can conjure, Saruman?" The Uruk-Hai then suicide-bomb the Deeping Wall (in a world which has never seen explosives before), and Theoden gets an Oh Crap moment.
Theoden also did this before the battle when he said, "No army has ever breached the deeping wall or set foot inside the Hornburg."
Lampshaded in The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra (2004). Ranger Brad gets killed moments after warning everyone about the horribly mutilated farmer that had been found earlier.
Ranger Brad: Say, I must be crazy walking around in these woods at night with a horrible mutilation practically around the corner. Oh well.
In Mouse Hunt, after the auction ends disastrously, Nathan Lane tries to reassure the auction goers by saying "This house will last forever!" Just after he says that, the house collapses indignantly.
Pearl Harbor. A Japanese bomb lands next to a sailor and doesn't go off. Not realising the tiny spinning propeller at the back of the bomb is the fuse, he shouts "It's a dud... IT'S A DUD!" KA-BOOOOM!
In The Princess Bride, Westley and Buttercup are discussing the final dangers of the fire swamp:
Buttercup:(while in the Fire Swamp) Westley, what about the R.O.U.S.'s? Westley: Rodents of Unusual Size? I don't think they exist... (Westley is attacked by a R.O.U.S.)
To be fair, Wesley had already seen the R.O.U.S.'s, he was just trying to make sure Buttercup didn't freak out.
In the Cold WarAlternate History movie Red Dawn, Soviet paratroopers have just landed in an American town. We see a bumper sticker saying THEY CAN HAVE MY GUN WHEN THEY PRY IT FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS! The camera then moves down to the owner of the car lying dead with a Colt .45 in his hands, which is then souvenired by an enemy paratrooper.
Star Trek (2009). Scotty says he's going to beam Kirk and Spock into what he thinks is a cargo hold "where there shouldn't be anyone around". It's no surprise at all when they materialize in the midst of a control room full of armed Romulans.
Supposedly, what Scotty beamed them into was originally the cargo bay, but after the Narada was rammed in the beginning of the film some changes had to be made.
A more positive example when Pike says to Kirk, "I dare you to do better."
The Film of the Book of Tom Clancy's The Sum of All Fears apparently changed the villains from the book's Islamic extremists to neo-Nazis because the film-makers considered a large-scale terror attack on the US by Islamic extremists to be too implausible. Ooops.
To give an idea of how ooopsy that actually was, the film shoot was wrapped in June 2001. Another couple of months and they might have had time for a quick rewrite.
Other sources claim the change was made to avoid angering groups such as CAIR. Who would soon have other issues to worry about.
Tremors: Earl and Valentine have resisted temptation (free beer) and left Perfection, Nevada for a new life. As they're driving along Valentine says, "Now there's nothing, and I mean nothing, between us and Bixby!" Seconds later, they see Edgar Deems high up on a power pylon. They stop to help him, and later events force them into a battle to the death against the Graboids.
(Froederick and Igor are exhuming a dead criminal) Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: What a filthy job. Igor: Could be worse. Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: How? Igor: Could be raining. (it starts to pour)
James Bond villains do it sometimes. One of the best examples is evil hacker Boris Grishenko in GoldenEye, who, after surviving the destruction of the Janus Base and his boss's demise, delivers his Catch Phrase "I am invincible!" — scant seconds before huge vats of liquid nitrogen decide to disgorge their contents in his direction, flash-freezing him to death on the spot.
The opening of the movie with the Dam infiltration:
Alec Trevelyan: Half of everything is luck, James. James Bond: And the other half? (alarm goes off) Alec Trevelyan: Fate.
Nick: That's it, only three of them? Roache: No, there's more. (showing more eggs in vicinity) Nick: Only 20? I think it's much more than this. (soldiers light the stadium) Roache: Start counting.
Leia: It could be worse. (ominous roar) Han: It's worse.
And then there's the sarlacc's description, when Han finds out he will be terminated immediately:
Han: Good. I hate long waits. [...] C-3PO: In his belly, you will find a new definition of pain and suffering, as you are slowly digested over a thousand years.
Also Vader saying "There'll be nothing to stop us this time!" The subsequent cut to two pathetic droids trekking through the desert hardly seems to contradict this, but...
A bit of EU information on The Empire Strikes Back has it that Admiral Ozzel, that mustached guy in the beginning, says to an aide that with the control of the Executor, he has become the ultimate power in the universe. Moments later, Vader contacts him to deliver his "letter of termination".
In Attack of the Clones: "Looks like I was wrong. There wasn't any danger at all!"
Caddyshack: During his Bizarre And Improbable Golf Game in the middle of a rainstorm, Bishop Pickering says to his caddy, Carl, "The Good Lord would never disrupt the best game of my life. I'm infallible, young fella!"
"I'm here! There's nothing to worry about!" Cue Tim Curry.
Lampshaded thoroughly in the first few minutes of Walk Hard:
Nate: There's nothing I won't do with this long, long life of mine... That's what's great about being young. So much time to do great things. (later) Dewey: You know how mad Pa gets when we play with his machetes. Nate: Come on. There's nothing wrong with a little machete-fighting.
Note that the machete fight was after they played catch with live snakes and jousted on tractors.
Back to the Future Part II: The future has been saved, and Doc is trying to land the DeLorean during a very heavy lightning storm. Marty warns him to be careful: "You don't want to get struck by..." Guess what happens next.
A pretty blatant example occurs in Battlefield Baseball. The Gedo coach wonders out loud, while looking around, if there is a Worthy Opponent that was brave enough to assault his headquarters. Cue Jubeh, arriving at the scene with an explosion, followed by The Cavalry to do exactly that.
The first Resident Evil. Right after entering the code to open a door, J.D. says "See how easy that was?" Seconds later he's dragged to his death by zombies behind the door.
The raptors in Jurassic Park are contained, right? "Unless they figure out how to open doors." Guess what happens. Taken to ridiculous extremes in the Rifftrax.
Ministry of Fear (1944), the Film Noir spy movie by Fritz Lang. The Nazi spy says "You wouldn't shoot your own brother" to his sister as he escapes out the door. There's the crack of a shot and a hole appears in the door; moments later his dead body tumbles through.
The Great Race. While Max and Professor Fate are on a small iceberg, Max thinks there may be a storm.
Professor Fate: You thimble-headed gherkin, do you realize the odds against a storm in this part of the ocean at this time of year? 100-to-1. (thunder, immediately starts to rain)
Lloyd Cramden: We've just had our first break. According to this dispatch I just received, our team of agents has them cornered! At any second... (gets another message) It was a trap. We just lost another team of agents.
The Golden Child. When Jarrell is taking the test to obtain the Dagger he says, "This is a piece of cake!" Not long after that he almost falls to his death and a rope bridge explodes.
Ocean's Twelve: Tess has to bail out most of the cast by impersonating her own actress. Matt Damon's character tries to reassure her that no-one she's going to run into actually knows Julia Roberts, and the last thing anyone will be is personal. In walks Bruce Willis, As Himself. Their reactions are priceless.
In the rather bad action movie Titanic 2 someone had the brilliant idea to name a ship Titanic and set it on the same route as the original. Things get worse not too long after.
Bob Hoskins delivers the line "I tell you: this is gonna be one lovely day," just before his car gets T-boned by a garbage truck and then riddled with bullets in the movie Unleashed.
And at the end of the movie, he gives us the second instance of this trope when he has his nice car parked in an alley during the final battle, saying "This will keep her out of harm's way." Guess what happens.
Randy: Never, ever, ever, under any circumstances, say "I'll be right back." 'Cause you won't be back. Stu: I'm gettin' another beer, you want one? Randy: Yeah, sure. Stu:I'll be right back! Randy: You see, you push the laws, and you end up dead, okay? I'll see you in the kitchen with a knife.
In the James Bond film, The World Is Not Enough, a caviar factory owned by Bond's former enemy turned ally Valentin Zukovsky is the sight of a lengthy battle between Bond and several mooks. While surveying the damage done to the factory after the battle ends, Zukovsky comments to his assistant that, "we may not have a roof, but at least, we still have four good walls." Seconds later, all four walls simultaneously collapse.
This trope is featured prominently in the short film from the Nestle Philippines Anthology entitled Sign Seeker, where the protagonist spends the entire morning tempting fate, looking for specific "Signs" from the universe to signal to him if today is the day he will ask the girl he likes if she would like to go on a date with him. This is one of the rare, positive examples of this trope: it plays the trope straight and is still funny while NOT making the person who is tempting fate totally miserable in the process.
GI Joe The Rise Of Cobra offers a classic example of an enemy who appears to be retreating, but is actually just getting out of the way of something worse. At the climax of the rather lengthy Paris chase scene, Snake Eyes abruptly lets go of the Cobra operatives' car after hanging on to it for the entire chase.
Baroness: He gave up!
Storm Shadow: He never gives up.
WHAM! [their car gets brutally T-boned by an oncoming train]
From the first Harry Potter movie: When Harry's abusive uncle claims "there's no such thing as magic!"
Later in the same movie, when the same character claims that because it's Sunday, they're not going to have to deal with any letters. Cue several owls swarming the house and filling it with letters.
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Grandpa Joe and Charlie are in the Fizzy Lifting Drink room. Grandpa Joe says "A swallow won't hurt us!". After they each take a swallow, they float into the air and almost get chopped to pieces by a huge exhaust fan in the ceiling. Laser-Guided Karma kicks in when it's revealed at the end that the only reason why they survived is because out of all the five kids, four of who got incapacitated by their own vices, Charlie was the only one who refused to give Arthur Slugworth, ostensibly a rival confectioner, a sample of the Everlasting Gobstopper—and as it turns out, Slugworth was actually a Wonka employee used for this Secret Test of Character.
DEBS. While the protagonists are investigating a bank vault, Amy says "See? That wasn't so hard." Then a Trap Door opens under her, sending her down a secret underground slide.
Folklore
Many professions have superstitions designed to avert and/or subvert this trope, such as stage performers' traditional well-wish of "Break a leg!" (because telling someone "You'll be fantastic!" is Tempting Fate), or sailors' reluctance to call "lifeboats" by that name (so Fate won't put its accuracy to the test).
Literature
The Animorphs were particularly Genre Savvy about this, often making reference to the "Irony Gods" who punish phrases such as "It can't get any worse."
This is part of the setting in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. One-in-a-million chances are known to come up nine times out of ten. BUT, if you try to stack the odds against you to make it one-in-a-million, you'll usually end up with a one-in-999,874 chance instead, which pointedly does not come up nine times out of ten. Likewise, a not-quite-goddess figure called The Lady has the tendency of rewarding her favorites through unlikely happenstances, BUT will instantly abandon you should you deliberately call upon her. Temples to her tend to get struck by lightning.
Similarly, going into the roughest bar in Ankh-Morpork and identifying yourself as "The Invincible" has on at least one occasion been legally ruled as a suicide.
Quite a lot of things are ruled as suicide in Ankh-Morpork. The trick is getting actually murdered.
Lampshaded most of the time by Rincewind, who is sensibly paranoid, as things around him are usually about to kill him. He epitomises this in Interesting Times, after the battle, all seems peaceful and quiet, and he calmly says "something is about to go wrong" (or something similar). It does.
In The Light Fantastic, when Rincewind arrives at Death's house, he overhears the whispers of the soon-to-be-dead, many of whom are Tempting Fate, e.g. "Watch where you're pointing that bow, you nearly—"
And in Reaper Man, Windle Poons marvels aloud at how easily they'd slain the mall organism, only to have the creature turn on him and his allies in its death throes. While they're inside the creature.
In the third book in the Alternate HistoryWorld War, one of the Alien Invaders, who can't stand cold, has been reassigned to a new area in the winter and asks the pilot how cold it is. Upon being told that there is ice on the ground, he remarks: "That seems to happen a great deal on this planet. I don't suppose this Siberia can be too much worse than the rest."
Also, this happens a lot to Fleetlord Atvar, the commander of the invasion force, starting with a derisive "And how much can a species change in 800 of their years?" in the very beginning of the series. (The very premise is based on that.)
A few more:
"Set off nukes in orbit, that should disrupt their communications and demoralize them to the point of surrender!" They end up proving to humans that nukes are possible and cause everyone to accelerate their atomic programs, and the global EMP failed to do anything significant due to mankind's lack of vulnerable technology.
After Russia sets off the first nuke, "At least the Americans and Germans don't have nukes." Cue Germany nuking Berslau and America nuking Chicago within a week of each other.
Leading to the best line in the series, where a flunky turns to Atvar and says, "Well, Exalted Fleetlord, now what?"
"Those clumsy rockets the Germans use are as annoying as hell, but at least they're the only annoying ones." America begins using short range rocket attacks.
In Second Contact, "Well, damn, I wasn't expecting ginger to exist. At least it can't get any worse now that the colonists are here." It acts as a sex drug on their females, turning their entire mating cycle on its head and generating much lulz amongst humans.
"Let's nuke one city in retaliation for every nuke used against us! Nobody would be crazy enough to ignore such a demand!" Hitler. That is all.
At some point during that exchange, the US sets off a nuke in Chicago, causing the Race to make Seattle go boom. They get a bonus, as it turns out that Vice President Harry Wallace died in the blast, and FDR's strength fails him in January 1944, causing Cordell Hull to become President. The next time we see Atvar, he says something along the lines of "HA! Both of their legitimately elected leaders are dead! Surely they'll refuse to acknowledge Hull as their rightful ruler and collapse into civil war!" The US fails to collapse.
And During the invasion of England, Atvar is puzzled when Winston Churchill tells him that he will use his "most dreadful weapons" and the answer isn't nukes. He decides that Churchill is bluffing on the grounds that nothing is worse than a nuke. Cue mustard gas massacre.
In Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Sun Jian swears an oath that if he's hiding the Imperial Seal (recovered after the sacking of the capital), may he meet a violent end. You can guess what happened. Ditto for Cao Cao's three lines to the effect of "If Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang had been smart enough to place an ambush here, we'd be doomed." By the second time, his companions have already become Genre Savvy... for all the good it does them, since he's not.
In The Amorous Umbrella (sequel to The Incredible Umbrella), Our Hero, who has a magical umbrella allowing him to enter fictional universes, uses it to attempt to find The Perfect Woman. At one point he uses it to enter the universe of 1950's soap operas. After being ensnared in Plot Twists and Love Dodecahedrons for years, he appears to be trapped in that universe. However, he is Genre Savvy, and recalls the one foolproof way of getting out of a soap opera, which is by dying. And the One True Inescapably Lethal Thing one can do in a soap opera is to say "I have never been better in my life." As soon as he says it, he can leave that universe.
His iceworlder compatriots have a proverb though that is much more sensible: "It can always get worse."
In the Doctrine of Labyrinths series, in the final book, the heros take a routine train ride through an old forest. They go on at some length about all the legends of evil things that happen in this forest. One of the characters says, "I sure hope nothing happens!" The next chapter opens: "Of course, something did."
In The Dresden Files book Changes, Harry is in a magical garden fighting a giant Centipede. He uses a focused beam of fire to cut it in half, and makes a wisecrack about Atari. Naturally, the two halves regenerate into new centipedes.
Quoth Mort, in Ghost Story, "It's one hour. Just one little hour. What could happen in one hour?" Lampshaded by Dresden: Mort couldn't possibly be a hero, because "heroes know better than to hand the universe lines like that".
In "Hover Car Racer" Jason Chaser is being told how he was the better racer even though his opponent just beat him and was offered a place on a pro team. He says "Yeah?, well I don't see the chiefs of any pro teams walking up to us and offering us a run in a grand slam race." As he says this a billionaire who runs a pro team walks up to offer them a place in the race.
In the Gotrek and Felix books, dwarf inventor Malakai Makaisson built the biggest steamship ever, naming it Unsinkable. It sank with all hands (except Malakai) on its first voyage. He built an airship, Indestructible, which crashed, killing everyone aboard, except Makaisson. When he built a second airship, he wanted to name it Unstoppable. For some reason, dwarf elder Borek, who was backing the project, wouldn't permit that.
Lampshaded in the second Artemis Fowl book: villain Briar Cudgeon says that nobody can get to him in order to stop him. The paragraph right after that says, "Of course, you should never say something tlike that, especially when you're an arch villain. It's just asking for trouble."
In James Alan Gardner's League of Peoples books (starting with Hunted), there is a higher echelon alien known as the Balrog that looks like a glowing red moss. It is insanely powerful and has a bit of a snarky side, as it can't help itself but attack when somebody says something to the effect of, "Well, it can't get much worse."
In the Gaunt's Ghosts novel Blood Pact, Gaunt sees the regiment growing steadily more restless due to the rest on Balhaut and hopes to get back into the war. He gets it, but not quite the way he wanted: A Blood Pact kill-team infiltrates in search of a high-ranking traitor and the Ghosts are dragged in. He later recognises this.
Belisarius Series: In The Tide of Victory, the allied fleet attacks a Malwa harbor with their new cannon-armed warships. When the Malwa siege gun guarding the harbor finally fires, John of Rhodes assures a companion that they couldn't possibly hit anything on their first shot, in a night engagement. A moment later, the companion finds themself knocked on their back by the cannonball striking the ship, killing John as well with a direct hit where he was standing.
In Busman's Honeymoon, the detective Lord Peter has reconstructed the trap that he believed killed the murder victim. His wife is dubious, thinking that it might have been noticed. This is followed by someone walking in and setting off the trap.
Nancy Mitford's 1935 novel Wigs on the Green was a satire, loosely based on Mitford's sisters Unity and Diana (Mosley): it portrayed the British Union of Fascists, fascism in general, and Nazi Germany, as a "harmless bunch of cranks". Understandably it was not reprinted until 2010.
Septimus Heap: In Syren, Septimus disregards Milo Banda's warning of an approaching storm, saying: "Spit Fyre doesn't mind a little strom, does he?" and flies off with Jenna and Beetle on his dragon Spit Fyre. The storm turns out to be much stronger than expected and forces Septimus to crash-land Spit Fyre on Syren Island after the dragon was hit by a lightning bolt.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer is pretty guilty of this, usually in combination with Gilligan Cut. Find me someone in the series who actually hasn't done this, and I'll be impressed. Xander seemed to tend to get the worse of it though.
Lampshaded in "School Hard", however:
Xander: As long as nothing really bad happens between now and then, you'll be fine. Buffy: Are you crazy? What did you say that for? Now something bad is going to happen! Xander: What do you mean? Nothing bad's going to happen. Willow: Not until some dummy says, "As long as nothing bad happens." Buffy: It's the ultimate jinx. Willow:What were you thinking?
Also worthy of mention is "Wild at Heart":
Buffy:(after killing a vampire) That's it? That's all I get? One lame-ass vamp with no appreciation for my painstakingly thought-out puns. I don't think the forces of darkness are even trying. I mean, you could make a little effort here, you know? Give me something to work with. Spike:(watching her from a distance) Watch your mouth, little girl. You should know better than to tempt the fates that way. 'Cause the Big Bad is back. And this time, it's... (suddenly he's being tazered) Urrgh! Aaaahhh! (he is dragged away by commandos)
Dawn: ... But there's a bright side. Buffy: There is? Dawn:At least things can't get any crazier. Right? (an arrow flies through the window and hits the wall — right next to Buffy) Buffy: You know this is your fault for saying that.
And again in "Ted", only this time, they don't particularly care:
Xander: Yeah, with Spike and Drusilla out of the way we've really been riding the mellow and am I like jinxing the hell out of us by saying that? Buffy: Yeah, but we'll let you off this time.
Even the video game gets in on it.
Buffy: Maybe now we can start enjoying the evening. Xander: Geez, Buff. Jinx us, why don't you? That's a cue for something evil to crash in if I ever heard one. And he doesn't even get to finish speaking before vampires crash into the Bronze.
"But I will never kiss you, Spike. Never touch you. Ever! Ever again!" Needless to say Buffy is kissing Spike by the end of the episode and they're having passionate Destructo Nookie in the episode following. Once can't help thinking she was doing it deliberately.
Evidently Joss Whedon likes this trope (among many others). Any time someone in Firefly thinks things are going smooth... they're not. Lampshade Hanging by Genre Savvy characters completely fails to avert the trouble — or the comments.
One of the most striking examples is in the movie, when Wash says, after a particularly skillful and heroic bit of flying, "I am a leaf on the wind. Watch how I-" And is immediately skewered through the chest.
The teaser of the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Our Man Bashir" ends with Garak saying "What could possibly go wrong?" while in a Bond-esque holoprogram with Bashir, which is just funny. (And, yes, something does go very wrong. It's the holodeck; what do you expect?)
In the first episode of Season 5 from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Worf and Gowron have a Bath'leth duel, which is stopped. Gowron comments that Worf missed his chance to slay him and won't get another. Near the very end of the LAST season, Worf and Gowron duel again, and, you guess, Worf slays Gowron.
In the novelisation of the very first episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Odo remarks to Bashir, that: 1) he doesn't get ill, 2) should he fall ill, Bashir (or any UFP doctor) will never be able to help. Near the end of the show, Odo does get ill, and Bashir is his only hope.
Star Trek: Enterprise, "The Council": The crew have successfully infiltrated a Sphere and reached its redundant memory core, whereupon Reed says: "It's practically gift-wrapped." Cue shot of Glowing Mecha-Tentacle of Death...
Londo: Yes, your ships are very impressive in space, or in the air. But they are on the ground now. Morden: So? They can sense an approaching ship from miles away! So what are you going to do, Mollari? Blow up the island? Londo: Actually... (produces detonator from his jacket) Now that you mention it... Morden:NOOOO!!! * boom*
In episode 8 of Primeval, a giant worm comes down from the ceiling and latches onto Connor's head immediately after he comments that they are now safe.
In the Doctor Who Christmas special The Voyage of the Damned, the villain ''tries'' to tempt fate by naming the interstellar cruise liner he means to scuttle the Titanic. It doesn't work nearly as well as he'd hoped, mainly thanks to the Doctor.
Meanwhile, in "The Impossible Planet":
Ida: We've come this far. There's no turning back. Doctor: Oh, did you have to? No turning back? That's almost as bad as "nothing can possibly go wrong" or "this is gonna be the best Christmas Walford's ever had!"
And perhaps the most blatant and extreme example in "Midnight":
The Doctor: Stuck in a big space bus with a bunch of strangers on a diamond planet called Midnight? What could possibly go wrong?
From "Dalek", a soldier asks of the titular monster, whom he believes is disabled: "What, are you going to sucker me to death?". The Dalek promptly crushes his skull with its plunger arm.
Same episode: "I think I know how to fight one single tin robot."
From "Boom Town": "Cardiff, early twenty-first century, winds coming from the... east. Trust me, safest place in the universe." Then the Doctor finds out there's a Slitheen plotting to blow the place up with a faulty nuclear power plant.
He does like saying that... from the 2011 Christmas special, "This is one of the safest planets I know; there's never anything dangerous here..." (a loud crash is heard nearby) "There are sentences I should just keep away from."
Cory Matthews from Boy Meets World always invokes this trope. He even lampshaded this in the episode where he joined the wrestling team, saying he wouldn't be asked to wrestle this season just so he can prove what he says won't happen, will happen. Next thing you know, he is asked to wrestle in his first match.
Parodied in The Young Ones. At the end of the first episode an airliner pilot cheerfully remarks, "Gosh, I really hope we don't have a crash."
And again, in the series 2 finale. Everything goes wrong for the titular characters, lose their house, school, to the degree they steal a bus, go over a cliff, end up up side down. They proclaim "Whew! That was close!" in unison. Cue big explosion.
Also in the series finale, the Landlord declared that his house was the wackiest house on television.
Mr Balowski: Why, if it isn't, may God strike me dead! (is promptly vapourised)
Rick was particularly prone to this trope, as his most sarcastic remarks routinely turned out to be accurate. "I suppose you've arranged for a bloody great articulated lorry, loaded with money and food and everything we need, to come smashing through the front windows!" (Points at windows. Crash!)
In The West Wing episode "Election Night", Toby makes frequent neurotic attempts to prevent the other campaign staff from tempting fate by behaving as if they've won before the results come in:
Sam: You wrote a concession? Toby: Of course I wrote a concession. What, you want to tempt the wrath of the whatever from high atop the thing? Sam: No. Toby: Then go outside, turn around three times and spit. What the hell's the matter with you?
There's also actual Tempting Fate scene, where he interrupts a premature celebration of the (100% certain) confirmation of their Supreme Court nominee, going around the room plucking champagne glasses out of people's hands because
Toby: In the three months this man has been on my radar screen I have aged forty-eight years. This is MY Day of Jubilee and I will not have it screwed up by WHAT, Bonnie? Bonnie: By tempting fate. Toby: BY TEMPTING FATE.
In the season one episode "The Short List", Josh is a little too confident about the ease with which the President's (initial) nominee for the Supreme Court will be confirmed, and doesn't so much tempt fate as lasso fate and drag it towards him:
Josh: [The confirmation process is] gonna sail, Donna.
Donna: There's many a slip twixt the tongue and the wrist, Josh.
In Little Mosque on the Prairie, Yasser reassures Amaar that the open house is going on "without an itch". The Chekhov's Gun-ish electric box he has been tasked to fix proceeds to blow up.
Jeremy Clarkson traditionally introduces new Top Gear Challenges by describing the task, then looking into the camera and saying "How hard can it be?" Hilarity Ensues.
In recent series they've had Richard Hammond routinely lampshade this. In the first show in which he returned from his near-fatal crash in the rocket car, Hammond said, "How I've missed the pang of dread whenever you say the words, 'How hard can it be?'" And in recent episodes, Hammond's standard reaction to Clarkson's asking "How hard can it be?" is to shout "Don't say that!" (or similar).
Speaking of the crash: Later in the episode they showed some of the footage from that day. It starts with Hammond explaining the rocket car with "This ignites the afterburner. And when that happens, I haven't got 5,000 horse powers. I've got 10,000 horse powers. And possibly the biggest accident you've ever seen in your life."
The only time Hammond tempted fate and got away with it was when he had a race between a Bugatti Veryon and military jet. He lived. His words before the challenge? (paraphrased) : "If I don't stop in time, I die a horrific death and YouTube has a field day."
Lorne: A memory spell — provided by one of my clients — that is guaranteed to bring our Cordy back to the way she was. Angel: Guaranteed? Lorne: No pain, no side-effects. I'm telling you, swingers, there's no way this can fail. (scene cuts to Lorne narrating) Lorne: So, I'm an idiot. What are you — perfect?
Skip's death. Guns have been largely useless in combating the forces of evil throughout the Buffyverse's entire run, and Skip snarks at Wesley "Do those things ever work?" Wesley sees a spot where Angelus tore off a horn, and puts a shot right in his brain.
Skip: That's just not right.
Wesley's "I think we're winning!" Next scene, they're tied up.
Rome: There's a hilarious coda to the episode "Egeria", where the legionaries are shivering on the deck of a galley as it battles through a raging storm.
Titus Pullo: This is cac, this is! I'm wet through! Lucius Vorenus: We're perfectly safe — a very favorable offering was made to Triton [son of Poseidon, god of the Sea] before we left. Pullo: Well, if he can't keep me drier than this, he can suck my cock! (ship's mast breaks) Vorenus: When will you learn to keep your fat mouth shut?!
Often used on Lost, especially in tandem with the Answer Cut. For example, Juliet is worried that Ben will react badly to her affair with Goodwin. Goodwin replies, "What's Ben gonna do?" Cut to Ben sending Goodwin to his death infiltrating the tail section.
There is hardly any Married... with Children episode where this trope isn't invoked by at least one character. The episode "Luck of the Bundy's" even establishes that a Bundy must never admit that he is lucky because an equal amount of bad luck is just waiting around the corner for him to be Tempting Fate. The result of that episode? The police "confiscates" all the money Al has been winning at poker so far, he gets arrested for grand theft auto (because all cars he also won were stolen), Bud's college dorm burns down forcing him to return back home, Kelly has a major stunt accident and is uninsured, and Al is getting hit by a lightning strike from the only cloud in miles, which is hovering above his house.
George: Do you have anything for us, anything good? Callie: Nope. It's slow. Alex: You don't say it's a slow day in the pit. George: You never say it's slow... you just jinxed us. Callie: It's a day and it's slow. Alex: When that phone starts ringing with traumas, you're gonna wish you hadn't said that. Callie: The phone's not gonna ring. It's a slow day. (the phone rings)
CSI: Miami: When Horatio Caine remarks that you might want to someday own a vehicle with doors (as opposed to your motorcycle), do NOT reply "I have plenty of time for that." Tim Speedle does. Poor Speed.
Played straight and then instantly lampshaded in Farscape:
Aeryn: You know we don't have a contingency. Crichton: Ah this'll work. Unless that plant can mutate in five minutes, what could go wrong? (beat) Crichton: Damn, I did not just say that.
Played straight in Blackadder. Blackadder has been convicted of a crime at his court-marshal and is going to be shot the next morning:
Blackadder: I wonder if anything in the world could depress me more. (Baldrick walks in, holding a bag) Blackadder:(tone hardly changing) Of course it could.
Earlier in the same episode:
Blackadder: Any impartial judge is bound to let me off. General Melchett:(from next room)BAH! Blackadder: I'm dead!
Stephen Colbert: It's gonna take more than a four-star general to get me to cut! my! hair! (ominous thunder, and the White House logo appears on screen) Barack Obama: Excuse me, General?
Baltar:(head in his hands) I just want to sit here and die. Gaeta:(giving a Click Hello with a pistol) You're about to get your wish, Gaius.
On The Drew Carey Show, Drew shares the elevator with Larry after he has been promised a promotion as long as he reaches the boardroom in thirty minutes. When Larry congratulates him, he says that he doesn't want to talk about it for fearing of jinxing things.
Larry: Hey, they're calling you up. There's no way you can lose now. Nothing but blue skies ahead! Not even the gods above with their so-called "powers" could... (elevator breaks down) Drew: You happy?
In Robin Hood: Robin tells Much about his secret engagement to Marian and comments: "Let's hope we live to enjoy it." They don't.
Remember that "I deserve a break" line at the start of the article? It came from Lieutenant Scott, on Stargate Universe. Guess what happened to him. Go ahead, I'll wait.
In "Time":
Eli: Well this couldn't get much worse. Rush: I'm afraid that's a failure of imagination. (they are promptly attacked by flying alien squid chest busters)
Not every case of Tempting Fate has to be life or death. Ask the late Peter Tomarken, host of Press Your Luck. Naturally, you want a game show host to wish good will upon the contestants, but he had no idea what they were in for when he said "We're gonna have Big Bucks today, I can feel it." Two episodes' worth (To Be Continued and all) of taping and $110,237 worth in cash and prizes later, Michael Larson pretty much made Tomarken eat his words. Larson knew the fixed sequence to the game board so he knew which spaces never contained a Whammy and which ones would always offer extra spins.
But nonetheless, the tragedy gods would still have the last laugh. In the opening segment, Tomarken makes a jab at Larson, saying "Hopefully you won't OD on money, Michael." Larson lost a lot of his winnings in a scam, had even more of it robbed when he left bags of it laying around in his house, and then had to flee from the law due to illegal trading. Seems like the Whammies had gotten their revenge after all...
In the season 3 episode of Chuck, Emmett Milbarge is telling a man to go away or else he will hurt him... not knowing he is being rude to an assassin. Luckily for him, the assassin doesn't think killing him is worth and starts to walk away, causing Emmett to call him "Pussy". That made the assassin shoot him in the eye killing him. If Emmett didn't call him that, well, he would still be alive...
From the penultimate episode of season four:
Sarah: Everything is perfect; nothing can go wrong.
Averted in the American version of Queer As Folk. A gay teenager is found dead in a dumpster, and everyone starts speculating that he was killed by a one-night stand. Brian deliberately tempts fate by picking up a random guy at the club that night, declaring that, "There's never been a hotter time to fuck a stranger." When Justin calls him on it, he even backs slowly away while wiggling his fingers dramatically and saying, "I'll be fine!" He's right, and nothing bad happens.
On an episode of The Dick Cavett Show, 72-year-old publisher Jerome Irving Rodale, an advocate of organic farming, died of a heart attack on stage. Earlier, Rodale had made some boastful comments on his supposedly good health, and bragged, "I'm going to live to be 100, unless I'm run down by some sugar-crazed taxi driver."
Referenced in an episode of How I Met Your Mother. Marshall and Lily agree to write each other "death letters" with a final goodbye and important information (bank accounts, passwords, etc.). Turns out that Marshall didn't write one, but he's planning on doing it soon. Ted and Barney assure him that there's no chance that he could suddenly drop dead before writing it. No chance at all. Marshall berates them for taking advantage of his superstitious nature, throws salt over his shoulder, knocks on wood, turns around three times and runs home to write the letter.
Used in "Perfect Week", where Barney was attempting to sleep with seven women in seven days. Lily utters the phrase "perfect week", thus jinxing it. The next day, Lily gleefully points out that Barney was getting along with "third martini girl", pointing out there was no such thing as a jinx. Only for 2009 World Champion New York Yankee member Nick Swisher walked through the door and every lady in the bar oogling at him.
An unscripted example occurs in the "Exploding Fire Extinguisher" myth on MythBusters. It looks like their big bang will take a while, so the gang starts playing charades. Tory asks, "Sounds like?" Cue Stuff Blowing Up.
Undercovers: A Russian is leading the Blooms through a minefield (with a mine-sniffing rat, no less). He invokes the trope:
Russian: I assure you, This is safe procedure. Follow me. *BOOM!*
On an episode of Wheel of Fortune, a contestant was faced with _____PS in the Bonus Round. Pat quipped, "If you solve this, I'm retiring." And after a few seconds, the contestant blurted out the right answer, HICCUPS.
In the season four finale of Friends, "The One With Ross's Wedding", Ross invokes this trope as a way of dooming his upcoming wedding to Emily.
Emily: "Oh, you weren't supposed to see me like this before the wedding. It's bad luck."
Ross: "It's okay. I think we've already had all the bad luck we're going to have."
Rachel enters... ruins the wedding.
Also when Rachel quits her job at Central Perk:
Ah, and no offense to everybody who still works here... You have no idea how good it feels to say that, as of this moment... I will never have to make coffee... again.
(in the next scene, she's at her new job... being told how to make coffee for her new boss)
Claudia Donovan: Yeah, the nanotech lab was impressive, the underground biosphere was off the chart, but, I dunno, this is Eureka, right? I was kinda hoping to see something insanely weird.
Cue something insanely weird
Meanwhile, inWarehouse 13... asked why, when everything else is powered down, the Dark Vault still has power:
Claudia Donovan: "Backup generators, cause everything's so dangerous. Don't worry, these should hold up long enough for us to..." power goes down "realize my karma sucks."
Young Dracula: In "Halloscream", Robin says "It's just an old biscuit tin. What's the worst that could happen?". As it turns out, opening the tin unleashes an ancient curse that will turn the Dracula family human.
Almost rises to the level of Once an Episode on Burn Notice. It goes like this: one of the main characters takes a seemingly innocuous job, probably something like tailing an embezzler, finding a missing daughter, or giving an abusive husband a firm talking to. It turns out they need the help of another main character (or all of them) to do it. The first character assures the other character(s) that the job is simple, easy, will probably take barely an hour, etc. At this point, the amount of time before things go completely to hell rarely tops five minutes.
In the story of the Seven Against Thebes, one of the leaders, Capaneus, stood just at the wall of the city and shouted that Zeus himself could not stop him from invading it. Zeus promptly killed him with a thunderbolt.
In revenge for Diomedes wounding her before Troy, Aphrodite/Venus saw to it that he was driven into exile in Italy. Trying to cheer him up, his six companions told him that at least Venus could do no worse to them. She then turned the six companions into birds.
Countless instances in Greek mythology. Proclaiming oneself smarter/mightier/prettier/better than the gods always brings immediate ruin down on the offending mortal (if the gods don't at least choose to be lenient and instead put said mortal to the test), yet mortals do this continuously.
Pro Wrestling
After a WWE title match on Smackdown between Rey Mysterio and the late Eddie Guerrero, heel manager Paul Heyman shows up, and after delivering a bigoted speech to both Eddie and Mysterio in which he expresses his desire to see the two of them and their families deported, he rants on about his "vision" for Smackdown, and ends the speech with "...and there's not a man alive who's going to stand in my way!" Guess who shows up seconds later to kick Heyman's ass.
The cocky rant itself was tempting more fate — the next week he was drafted to Raw and minutes later quit his job.
A similar thing happened to William Regal during his phase as Raw's heel GM and King of the Ring, when he often (literally) blacked out the venue during fights and such. Well, with Regal on the verge of dictator, loudmouth Mr. Kennedy interrupts him asking for a fight. Regal responds, "The very next person who interrupts me, whether it be you or anyone else, will be fired on the spot." Guess who is the next person that interrupts Regal. And by the way, Regal would later lose his match versus Kennedy and get FIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRRREEED!!! as a result of Mr. McMahon's proposition.
Regal wasn't the first heel GM of Raw to meet this fate. When Eric Bischoff was the Raw GM a few years earlier, he opened Raw the night after the Survivor Series pay-per-view in an understandably bad mood as Raw's team had lost to Smackdown's team in a 5-on-5 elimination match the prior night. When nobody responded to his demand for an explanation of why they lost, he threatened to come back to the locker room area and fire whoever he saw on the spot. Cue the entrance music of Vince McMahon, the one person that Bischoff didn't have the authority to fire.
Any time a wrestler says something like "I could beat you with one hand tied behind my back!", you can bet the house that he'll be put in a match with such a stipulation.
Because Triple H, the WWE Champion, had been drafted to Smackdown in 2008, Smackdown had two champions and Raw had none. Edge, the World Heavyweight Champion, came to Raw to insult Jim Ross and Batista, who he had beaten the night before. He then proceeded to brag about how Raw had no champion, about how none of the top contenders would ever get a shot at his title, and how he would never come back to Raw. Unfortunately for Edge, he didn't count on Batista beating the tar out of him, or CM Punk (whom he had neglected to mention) cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase to become the new World Heavyweight Champion.
Don't forget that Edge was essentially Hoist by His Own Petard, since he had done the exact same thing to John Cena and The Undertaker the previous two years. Punk actually commented on this in his first interview after winning the title.
During an episode of Raw in John Cena's hometown of Boston, Randy Orton pulled Cena's father out of the front row of the crowd and promptly punted him in the head. Cue Orton being on the receiving end of the most brutal beatdown Cena had ever administered to anyone in his career.
CM Punk himself managed two in the same promo in Ring Of Honor during his feud with Raven: "Raven, where did being Extreme ever get you?", and "That beer you drink has never and will never touch my lips!" - after his dog collar match with Raven, Punk got jumped by Tommy Dreamer, tied to the ropes, and forced to drink beer. And three years later, he ended up in the revived ECW.
Whenever someone issues an open challenge and says he/she is ready for anyone on the roster, the result is usually being squashed by the biggest person in the company.
In the leadup to the 1999 Royal Rumble, Vince McMahon is drawing his number after Austin is declared the #1 entrant and says that he'd sure love to be the #2 entrant. While he wound up getting #30, Shawn Michaels (the WWF Commissioner at the time) makes him the #2 entrant.
Sports
Baseball: On August 12, 1951, with his Brooklyn Dodgers sitting comfortably on a 12½-game lead in the NL standings over the rival New York Giants and having just completed a three-game sweep of the latter team, manager Chuck Dressen happily declared, "The Giants is dead!" By the time the season ended on September 30, the Giants had tied Brooklyn in the standings, forcing a three-game playoff series which ended in Bobby Thomson's immortal "Shot Heard 'Round the World" to give the Giants the pennant.
In Britain, this sort of thing is sometimes known as the Murray Walker Curse, after the Formula One commentator who had a reputation for observing that a particular driver's victory was inevitable mere moments before their car suffered some catastrophic failure that put them out of the race. Frequently led to commentary along the lines of "Unless I'm very much mistaken... I am very much mistaken!"
Walker himself called this the "commentator's curse," saying that it happens to everybody in his profession, but pop culture particularly associates it with him.
American sportscaster Curt Gowdy was sufficiently known for this that the term "getting Curt Gowdyed" became part of the sports vernacular here in the 1960s and '70s, and is still occasionally used today.
Figure skating: Michelle Kwan, heading into the 2002 Winter Olympics having choreographed a program to the song "Fields of Gold" as the massive, overwhelming favorite. She promptly fell in the final round to slip from a gold to a bronze medal. What makes it worse? She should have known better, after having ALREADY lost as a heavy favorite in the final round four years earlier in the 1998 Olympics.
Soccer: Brazilian team Cruzeiro was in the Libertadores (the South American continental cup) final against Estudiantes, a team which they met in group stage. First game of the finals, a draw in Argentina. Second and final game is at home, a draw gives the title, the game during the group stage ended 3-0. So, the team president did a reunion to discuss the player's prizes, and the supporters went mad, making "Champion" ribbons — one even started paying the ticket to Dubai, where the FIFA Club World Cup would occur! In the actual game, Cruzeiro scored first, but Estudiantes went on to win 2-1.
Rugby: This advert proclaimed England to be the 2011 Grand Slam winners in the six nations. For those not in the know, the six nations is an annual tournament between England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, France and Italy. A country wins a grand slam when they win all their matches. Trouble is, it was made before their final match against Ireland. Ireland won by 24-8.
Australian Rules Football: Speaking at the 2010 Grand Final Breakfast, following the hung parliament in that year's election, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said, "Please, we cannot have a draw!". Guess what happened?
"Commentator's Curse" (complimenting a player on their performance right before they screw up) is an established technical term among BBC commentators (also quite prevalent Stateside, esp. among commentators talking about field goal kickers). A typical exchange would be:
Guest commentator: Davis really is producing some brilliant snooker tonight.
[player misses a colour off the spot]
Main commentator: That's a nice case of commentator's curse you've got yourself there, Gerald.
In January 2012, ESPN covered a Clippers game in back-to-back weeks. In both games, color commentator Hubie Brown mentioned Clippers guard Chauncey Billups being among the top-5 leaders in free throw percentage in NBA history as Billups headed to the line. In both games, Billups missed the very first FT after Hubie put the whammy on him, something lampshaded by his play-by-play partner Mike Tirico.
Standup Comedy
According to Bill Bailey, while he was performing at a charity gig sponsored by a Swiss banking firm, the organisers of the gig explicitly asked him not to make any jokes about Nazi Gold. Never ask a comedian not to make jokes about something; Bill later did some research into the bank in question, and devotes part of his Tinselworm DVD to making jokes about the bank's ties to the nazi regime and encourages the audience to protest against them.
Theater
In Little Shop of Horrors, much ado is made about the fact that Audrey and Seymour are getting married tomorrow. There's even a Cut Song called "We'll have tomorrow". They're both dead by the end of the day.
The Stage To Screen Adaptation of The Producers has a song about it being bad luck to say "good luck" on opening night. Therefore, everyone wishes Franz to "break a leg" as he dashes off to the show. It's just his luck that a moment later he literally breaks his leg.
Also invoked by Max, who wants the show to fail and so wishes "good luck" to everyone he can. He even breaks a mirror and throws a black cat across the stage door path for good measure.
In Avenue Q, the number "If You Were Gay" begins with Rod reading alone in his apartment, saying, "No roommate to bother me, how can it get any better than this?" Cue "Oh, hi Rod!" as the door slams.
In Chicago: "And I said, 'You pop that gum one more time'... sigh... and he did. So I took the shotgun off the wall, and fired three warning shots. Into his head."
In BIONICLE, after the heroes have awoken Mata Nui and everyone is celebrating, Takanuva writes on his blog about his hopes for a new era of peace. Hahli, on the other hand, has her doubts, but joins in the celebrations nonetheless, walking off into the distance, humming a song about hope for tomorrow. And then the Big Bad reveals he's taken over the universe. TheEnd. At least, for that arc...
Video Games
Near the start of Xenoblade Chronicles, Fiora tells Shulk that she's super-happy and wishes every day could be like this forever. So naturally the colony gets invaded shortly thereafter.
Final Fantasy IX has a fairly spectacular example in Cleyra, a Hidden Elf Village protected by a magical sandstorm: "No enemy would dare attack us when we strengthen the storm!" "I think strengthening the storm would be good for me." "Strengthening the storm is the best thing you can do right now!" The attempt causes the enchantment to break.
In Star Control II, you can meet the Melnorme and their space ship, the Inevitably Successful in All Circumstances.
Although, unless the player does something really silly, this will turn out to be an aversion.
In Resident Evil 5, right after you run into a pair of Lickers, one of the characters remarks that it's a good thing there was only a couple of them, because there was no way they'd survive against a whole horde of them. Guess what happens when you have to wait for the elevator...
Uther: I hope there is a special place in hell waiting for you, Arthas! Arthas: I guess we'll never know, Uther, I intend to live forever.
We all know how that ends up.
Yogg-Saron: NO KING RULES FOREVER!
Anyone familiar with Warcraft or World of Warcraft knows how Goblin technology is prone to blowing up, whether it's supposed to or not; so would any sane person want to fly around Azeroth on a Goblin made Rocket Ride named "The Uncrashable"?
Which is subverted because, while it does stutter and make unnerving popping sounds, it actually gets you where you're going safely.
In Halo: Combat Evolved, a group of space marines board a ship owned by hostile Covenant. They look around the empty room they arrive in, note that there are no blips on their RADAR, and one of them says: "No Covenant. I guess nobodies home." Cue doors all around them opening to reveal hordes of Laser Sword - wielding Covenant (who were wearing devices that shielded them from RADAR.)
Quickly lampshaded: "No Covenant. You had to open your mouth."
"Was Bowser a pushover or what?" (cue Giant Bowser now blasting the windscreen to pieces and towering over the train at about two hundred foot tall)
Then: "Worry not, broskis! That guy's punch is no prob! Unless he spits fire, we'll take ZERO damage!" (And for that matter, the words "punch" and "fire" are in blue.)
(Mario/Luigi arrives at Bowser Jr's Boom Bunker, where he finds the Toad Brigade finding the remains of a destroyed robot on the first planet, it is Megahammer, the robot Bowser Jr. used during his battle against Mario/Luigi at the end of Bowser Jr's Fearsome Fleet)
Blue Toad: Hey, Mario/Luigi! Come take a look at this!
Banktoad: Um, isn't this a bad idea? I'm scared...
Toad: Don't worry, guys. It's broken! (Mario/Luigi approaches the now-destroyed Megahammer when all of a sudden it immediately turns itself back on and start firing Bullet Bills again)
Mailtoad: Spoke too soon!
Yellow Toad: (sleeping) Wait, what?
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption gets in on the act at the beginning of the game at the same time it references Warhammer 40K with the Horus Rebellion. That feeling it could get worse? He hasnoidea...
Prior to Metroid Prime, the Chozo actually did this too. Remember their wall-hanging made of Cordite? Cordite is a kind of gunpowder for modern-day heavy-duty artillery weapons. It's not something you should make wall-hangings off.
Also invoked at the end of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, when while the modern-day Assassins (mainly Lucy, which makes it all the more ironic considering the fact she at the very least is badly wounded afterwards, if not killed) are exploring the Colosseum to retrieve the Apple of Eden, they repeatedly remark how "It's nearly over", "We've finally found it", "We're so close", "What will we do next" etc etc, which, to the perceptive player who picks up on this constant need to mention such things, creates a sense of foreboding. Talk about counting your chickens before they've hatched.
Throughout the game (while playing as Ezio), you can make areas safe for travel and unlock merchants by assassinating the guard captain in charge and burning the guard tower. One such captain is busy lecturing his men about how to watch for and survive Assassins and that he has great experience with them.
Also done at the beginning of Assassin's Creed II. It is a generally heartwarming moment, but also a bit unsettling because of this very trope.
Frederico: It is a good life we lead, brother. Ezio: The best. May it never change.
Frederico: And may it never change us.
Golden Sun: Dark Dawn: Waelda elder Laurel mentions a machine in Belinsk (The Alchemy Dynamo) and how Matthew and his lot must never activate it. She demonstrates some genre savviness and refuses to tell the party how to turn it on when asked, but Ryu Kou already knows how, and gets pushed into it anyway. Goddamnit.
In Dead Space 2, you're on a tram on your way to the bridge of the old Ishimura to activate the gravity tethers. Ellie tells you that the necromorphs are swarming in through a hole in the Medical Deck, but at least you won't have to go through there.
Tram computer: Unexpected obstruction ahead. Shutting down. Welcome to the Medical Deck.
This audio diary from one of Cohen's disciples, that you find after you have to kill him, ends thusly:
RODRIGUEZ: I'm through with the whole piñata. Let's see that old fruit [Cohen] try an' keep me here...
In Dragon Age II, Sarcastic!Hawke LOVES doing this. And Varric, being the narrator and Genre Savvy, hates it when he does.
In Saints Row 3, pedestrians may shout "You can't kill me!" at the protagonist as he/she drives by packing various shotguns, machine guns, electric grenades and a remote control for UAV-delivered smartbombs. In the prequel, drivers could occasionally be heard saying "This car ain't got a scratch".
"It's quiet. TOO quiet." -bullet whizzes past his head- "And suddenly it's very loud. I liked it better when it was quiet!"
And another one from Church:
Church: As long as we're all happy, as long as we're all calm, and there's nothing that will get us excited or riled up. (KABOOM) O'Malley: Attack! Attack! Church: I could almost feel that coming... right as I finished the sentence.
Shrooms. In "Supernatural Happenings", Red boldly insults an entire house full of ghosts, thinking they'll leave if he stands up to them. The camera HUD even changes to say "TEMPTING FATE" as he challenges them.
A Running Gag in 8-Bit Theater is the phrase "[situation] is X, X forever!" (e.g. "At last that Hell Door is vanquished, I'm safe. Safe forever!" — Black Mage, on getting past a door which was constantly opening and closing). Characters who have uttered these words always suffer in some way or other (for example in the last example, Black Mage was immediately attacked by the personification of Thief's greed.
Also the gag of a character or characters saying something sickeningly ideal, often about how life finally stopped sucking for them, before they get hit by a Hadoken or a meteor or something.
Thad in By the Saints jokingly says, "... for what we are about to receive..." while marching into battle. He isn't thankful for what he does receive a split-second later.
Schlock Mercenary has made this into an inside joke. The entire cast is Genre Savvy and refers to doing this as "taunting/invoking Murphy". Every time a character tries to say "What could go wrong?" or "It's a guaranteed success" or the like, he/she/it/they is violently interrupted. It's generally foreshadowing that something will go wrong, but that's a sucker bet anyway.
Para Ventura: Oh, come on. What's the wo- Kevyn: You have not worked here long enough to be allowed to finish that sentence.
Goblins has a sub-comic called Tempts Fate[1] after the lead character, Tempts Fate. Why is he called that? The writer decided to have people's donations actually do something tangible, so he set up Tempts Fate as a sort of arcade game: if donations reach a certain goal by a certain date, Tempts Fate will pass the obstacle in his way; the more the donations exceed the goal, the more awesome Tempts Fate's victory will be. If people fail to donate enough money by the deadline, then Tempts Fate will fail, and die, and live on only in our memories.
And so far, Tempts Fate has lived through 8 challenges in spectacular fashion. So much so that the author has added extra properties to the donations, including a sort of "dice" modifier based on the cents digit that decides which cool item Tempts Fate gets if the biggest goal is met.
When he offered T-shirts for donations during the "Tempts Vs. The Really, Really poorly Made Characters" challenge, the donations skyrocketed, collecting more than enough for the fourth and final goal before the first goal's deadline. The result? Tempts killed the poorly made characters so hard that it killed the people playing those characters (except Elfgirl, as she didn't want to kill him or, indeed, even play D&D, so he just let her go; he killed the DM instead).
Mordekai: Oh c'mon! How many dinosaur models can one person have? Dinosaurs:(fully surrounding party)RAAARRRHH!
Combined with Historical In-Joke once, when an obstructive Ukrainian railway official mockingly asks Dr Smith "What will [Stalin] do? Purge entire country?"
Old Prisoner: HA! I knew I made the right call staying in prison. That Tsukiko chick is getting her ass kicked by an elemental! It's so much safer up here! Tsukiko:SHOUT! (cell crumbles, a slab of stone falls and crushes the old man to death) Nale: Well, now, really, what did you expect after a line like that?
Partially obscured wall writings: in danger... with... Belkar...
Inverted in On the Origins of PCs: Belkar breaks out of prison, murders a guard and exclaims, "Things can't get any better!" He promptly stumbles upon a 2-for-1 deal on whores.
Art: If I had to run away from something right now, I'd be so screwed.(...cue Flying Trashcans who came all the way from Mars just to get him).
Lampshaded in Narbonic: the characters are stranded in a raft at sea, with no food, no water, and no cigarettes, and Dave starts to say it couldn't be worse. Genre savvy Mell tries to stop him, but as the huge wave looms over the raft, Helen points out that it's too late. Dave's last words are "Well, MY face is red."
This strip of Dominic Deegan. Lack of scrying alerts aside, you would think a seer who has been through as much crap as Dominic has would know better than to even think the words "Nothing bad will happen."...
To be fair, we find out later that "the bad thing" actually blocked his second sight so that he — nor any other seer — would spot him coming.
Fate launches all salvos in this strip. Also combines a "Things can't get any worse." statement with a response in the next panel midsentence. Either Dominic needs his crystal balls polished or he has a really twisted definition of "Nothing bad will happen."
Dan: Ha! Shows what you know, universe! Trying to bury me with girls only makes everything better!
Also in this comic, where Mab actually isn't sure if the next event to happen makes anything better or worse.
Homestuck likes this one. Due to the high number of playable characters, the narrative is prone to sudden shifts in perspective, often at key dramatic moments. The fate-tempting is mostly hanging a lampshade on the whole affair.
One astronaut in Mountain Time seems to be ordering his fate off a menu.
Played with in Hellbound; mostly used straight, occasionally subverted, the best one occurring fairly early on:
Guy: At least things can't get any worse.... (silence) Baxter: Hey, nothing happened! I guess your life can't get any worse than this! You've hit rock bottom, but at least nothing else can go wrong! Guy: Oh good, my suicide shall go flawlessly. Baxter: That's the spirit!
Parodied one strip when Torg and Zoë are racing K'Z'K to the Book of Güd. (More specifically, Torg tries to invoke the opposite version — tempting fate to do something good — before Zoë mentions tempting fate the usual way, and that works.)
There's a pretty over-the-top one early on.
Riff: I can fetch him back in a few hours. Torg will be fine as long as he didn't get zapped to a "Dimension of Pain" or something. (meanwhile) Demon Lord Horribus: Welcome to the Dimension of Pain! Torg: Thanks! Can I use your restroom? Horribus: Nope.
Finders Keepers used this in an interesting way. Cailyn and Card are in a magical market, looking for Fate. Cailyn suggests they split up in the middle of a market full of powerful and dangerous supernatural creatures. She figures if Fate doesn't want to be found, she can make it want to find her.
Gunnerkrigg Court, Chapter 23 has an interesting variation on this. During the camping trip, students start mysteriously disappearing, and the remaining students deduce that it must be a prank the teachers are pulling. They come up with a plan to find the missing students and expose the prank, but it requires one more student to deliberately get kidnapped. Kat volunteers, because she's totally cool with being kidnapped by Mr. Eglamore. Cue Kat, sitting by herself, announcing to no-one in particular, "Oh boy! I sure hope nothing happens to me now that I'm here all alone!" As expected, she immediately gets kidnapped... but not by Mr. Eglamore.
Yahtzee Takes on the World adds a bit of spin by showing a flying saucer crashing into the characters' lair before it cuts to a very annoyed Yahtzee, who announces "As I was saying, it's nice to get back to normal."
In Something Positive, one of Davan's friends says that he won't have a costume unless they have one in a can waiting for him. They do.
In a recent strip, Sheila asks "how hard can it be to catch dumb plant-eaters" while planning on hunting in Kell's place to help her meet quota. Suddenly, an icy cold blast out of nowhere freezes all the vegetation.
Dechs:(while waiting on a rooftop for something interesting to happen) I'm bored. (pause) Dechs: It seems like a quiet night. (pause) Dechs: I said, it seems like a quiet night. (nothing happens) Dechs: Well damn, that usually works.
GastroPhobia: "— And nothing short of a barrage of arrows could make me move from this spot!" Now, Phobia, that's beyond merely Tempting Fate and simply asking for it.
Erfworld: Prince Tramennis asks King Slately about parleying with Parson: "Come! What's the worst that could happen?" The King's response: "The worst? The Titans could hear you ask such a question."
During the battle with King's invincible army in Two Evil Scientists, one of King's robots points out how a battle against weak enemies is no fun when you can't get hurt. In the very next panel, the severed head of another supposedly invincible robot bounces by him. Cue Oh Crap face.
The commander of the heliolux airfleet (communication systems/roasting) after was informed that contact with several units was lost mid-sentence and then the contact with a bay of their own ship is lost right now. She couldn't finish the next sentence with anything better than "We'll miss the fighting!". Cue a Jägermonster walking in right behind her and happily screaming "Wrong!".
Marlene: What? Why— Ivy, how is it that you always pick the most ironic moments to ruin my life? Ivy: Oh no, did you just get done saying that everything was back to normal again? Marlene: ...No... Ivy: Yes you did. I know that tone of voice. Why do you keep doing this to yourself?
In A Miracle of Science Caprice says "We're perfectly fine" right before her ship is attacked by the weapon from which it got no protection. And repeats just before it explodes. Benjamin shuts her up before she says this the third time. Though it was after he taunted killer bots himself.
Yuri: I can move large objects, be willful, and am now the perfect killing machine. Nothing can stop me. [Yuri collapses and loses consciousness.] Emily: Martina loaned me Yuri's power-off button.
At the end of the lonelygirl15 episode "Backyard Bikini Patrol", Sarah remarks, "Us girls had a kickass day today. And, you know what? Tomorrow is gonna be even better!" The following day, in "Tick Tick Boom", villain Salinas sends her a video of her boyfriend Bound and Gagged with a bomb strapped to his chest.
Also in "Partner Swap", the day before prom night, Emma comments, "I have this feeling that we're going to have the most memorable night of our lives." In the next episode, "Prom: It's To Die For", Gina is killed.
Occurs all the time in the Protectors of the Plot Continuum. Whenever an agent says anything along the lines of "At last, a break from badfic." or "Now I can catch some sleep." he/she/other/it get sent to another mission. Lampshaded by references to the "Laws of Narrative Comedy". If a mission is described as appearing "not too bad", it will rapidly get worse.
Desu Des Brigade: After learning of the aforementioned Project D being done at a NASA base, Hitch said, "I am so outta here the moment they mention space vampires!" Much later in the review, near the end, when the vampire tells Kuki about their battle with evil aliens across the universe...
Hitch: Done. I am not doing space vampires! No! Done. Done! Dammit!!
In part 2 of Metroid Confusion, the two protagonists are blasted into space by a nuclear explosion. As they drift pointlessly through space on a piece of rock, the following exchange occurs:
"Look on the bright side. It could be worse." "How could it possibly be worse?" (rant detailing the situation they're in) "It could be raining." "You idiot! It cannot rain in space!"
It seems that when anyone tries to review the godawful Batman and Robin film, it is almost a requirement to suggest that it won't be as bad as it's made out to be (RiffTrax and The Nostalgia Critic come to mind, with the latter providing a quote). In the case of the Critic, not less than fifteen seconds after saying so, he tries (and fails) to pop a cyanide pill.
Zero Punctuation illustrates this concept with DC character Dr. Fate being offered cake.
There's also the "Prototype vs inFamous", where Yahtzee declared both games to be equal and jokingly said that if the game studios want him to pick a winner, they'll have to send him their best images of the rival game's main character wearing women's lingerie. Much to his surprise and horror, they complied.
Yahtzee: Thanks to Radical Entertainment and Sucker Punch Productions for being such good sports. You sick, sick fucks.
The first song in Prop 8: The Musical ends with "Nothing can go wrong/So join us in this song/Of happy days, for the gays/Nothing can go wrong!" Enter the Corrupt Corporate Executive with the titular proposition.
The Spoony One sang a parody of Rob Van Dam's entrance music during one of the first episodes of Wrestle! Wrestle!, with cheesy lyrics about himself ("Duh-da-duh-da-duh! It's time for the Spoony One's! Duh-da-duh-da-duh! Wrest-ling show!"), then remarked "Watch people ask me to make that the theme song." You get three guesses as to what WW's theme song is, and the first two don't count.
Said by Linkara in Atop the Fourth Wall before trying to upload an AI to his spaceship through an ion storm. Cue Iron Liz switching into a Mirror Universe.
Avatar The Last Airbender: While the Gaang's ship is under attack, Sokka says, "Things couldn't get much worse!", then a giant sea serpent pops out of the water. The trope is however swiftly subverted, as a stray shot causes the serpent to attack their pursuers instead, prompting a "Thank you, the universe!" from Sokka.
Also, in the two-part episode "The Boiling Rock", the Warden says that no one has ever escaped from his prison. By the end of the episode, FIVE people have escaped — Sokka, Zuko, Hakoda, Suki and Chit Sang.
Having captured Toph in a metal container, and in the process of carting her home, Xin Fu gets sick of her yelling and taunts her, saying, "You might think you're the greatest earthbender in the world, but even you can't bend metal!" Guess what skill she proceeds to teach herself and use in the next few hours.
At the end of "The Earth King" Aang and Sokka make their way over the plains surrounding Ba Sing Se on Appa, convinced that things are finally going positively for them. They have the Earth king on their side, Long Feng is arrested, Sokka's on his way to see his dad, Aang's on his way to see a Guru who's going to help him master the Avatar State, Toph's on her way to see her mother, and the Kyoshi warriors are coming to Ba Sing Se. Sokka even says "Everything’s gonna work out perfectly, from now on and forever." However, things go wrong in the next few scenes. In prison, a Dai Li agent delivers Long Feng his meal, but also quietly reassures Long Feng that the organization retains loyalty to him, not the King. Toph goes to meet her mother, and ends up being captured in a metal box by Master Yu and Xin Fu. The Kyoshi Warriors arrive before the Earth King, who formally welcomes them. Unknown to the king, however, they are actually Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee, disguised in Kyoshi Warrior garments and face paint.
Batman: The Animated Series has "Harley's Holiday", where a semi-rehabilitated Harley Quinn ends up being pursued by the police, as well as Batman and Robin, after a simple misunderstanding. After taking Spoiled Sweet Veronica Vreeland hostage, she then ends up being pursued by gangsters who wish to ransom off the debutante. After Veronica realizes Harley really doesn't mean her any harm, she agrees to drop all charges, provided she gets out of this in one piece. A delighted Harley states: "For the first time today, things are finally looking up!" Enter Veronica's hysterical Army general father, bearing down on them in a tank, Patton-style.
Waspinator, the designated Butt Monkey of Beast Wars gets it in "Changing of the Guard":
Waspinator: Wazzpinator having good day! Not get shot once! (gets shot by Rattrap)
In one episode of The Boondocks, Uncle Ruckus, preaching to a crowd, says, "Now, let us pray. Lord, I have spent my whole life hatin' you for makin' me black, and now I see I must hate myself, and all those like me, and cause them misery just like your servant Ronald Reagan did. And if ANY of my words don't come directly from the Almighty God himself, then may I be struck by lightning right this very instant. Halle-". Three guesses what interrupted him.
In Clone High, Abe is running for student body president and getting his butt kicked. Gandhi says "At least things can't get any worse." and Abe berates him because of this trope. As if on cue, Cleo dumps him. Gandhi then says, "Wait... at least things can't get any better." Abe says it doesn't work that way. After Abe leaves the scene, as if on cue, a butterfly flies over and gives him a dollar.
Also parodied wonderfully in the episode where Ponce, a character who had never been seen before and was very obviously introduced just so he could be gratuitously killed off, spends the entire first half of the episode making blatant fate-tempting statements, such as constantly telling his friends he loves them just in case he never sees them again. Sure enough, he is randomly killed by a flying plastic bag.
Code Lyoko: Any time Jérémie makes an assessment of the situation on Lyoko, something immediately happens to make it the opposite. Thus, optimism leads to nothing but trouble, but saying "It's all over!" appears to summon a Deus ex Machina.
"Kadic Bombshell": Aelita asks Jérémie if he can fix the unexpected problem with the Supercomputer. He worriedly tells her, yes, "but the problem is that it might take a little while, and of course during that time, XANA could..." BEEP BEEP BEEP "...activate a tower!" XANA never lets an opportunity to let the kids tempt fate slide.
"Bad Connection": Odd complains at the beginning that he never has any conflict with his parents like a normal teenager. After XANA makes them, along with almost everyone else at the academy, Brainwashed and Crazy, they spend most of the episode trying to kill him. When the mob corners him, we get this line:
Odd:(unconcerned/resigned) I promise never to complain about not having conflicts with my parents again.
Also, this textbook exchange:
Jérémie: I'm putting it to sleep. Odd would kill me if the Super Scan went off in the middle of his film. Aelita: At any rate, there's not much chance that XANA would launch an attack during the three minutes the film lasts.
"End of Take":
Sissi: Or else what, a monster's going to squirt goopy goo all over my face, huh, Ulrich? (guess what happens next)
The Titanic reference happened in an episode of Futurama and Totally Spies!. Needless to say, neither vacation turned out very well, although to be fair, the Futurama episode didn't have the Mind Screw that the Totally Spies! episode did.
In the U.S. Acres shorts on Garfield and Friends, Booker often hunts worms, an activity which Sheldon declines to participate in, but which he's usually nearby to witness. Consider this exchange:
Booker: You won't get away from me! (the worm gets away) Sheldon: He got away from you!
In an episode of The Garfield Show, Odie manages to win the first round of the pet pageant he's in with Garfield's "help". Garfield comments confidently that "we can't lose", only for the announcer to state that the second round would be the talent competition, causing Garfield, who realizes he spoke too soon, to remark: "Boy, can we lose."
Lampshaded in the Jimmy/Timmy Power Hour 2. After Libby says "What, you think a date is just going to come crashing through the roof?", and Timmy Turner does so, she raises her finger and proclaims "I shall use this power for good!"
Justice League Unlimited: In the episode "Grudge Match", Huntress and Black Canary face off and against brainwashed superheroines in a Glamour Slam. After breaking Hawkgirl and Vixen out of their brainwashing, Huntress is feeling lucky and shouts "Is that all you've got?" to villainess Roulette — who promptly sends (also brainwashed) Wonder Woman onto the stage. Cue the heroines' Oh Crap expressions.
Just after Flash disappears, Luthor says "what do you know, I did kill him". After Superman overcomes the temptation to burn Luthor to a crisp, it turns out Flash is actually still alive.
Subverted in an episode of Mission Hill when Andy French makes a deliberate comment about how he pays the electric bill. The lights flicker off soon as the words are out of his mouth... then flicker right back on, Andy smugly repeating that he did, indeed, pay the electric bill.
Played with in The Mummy animated series, where the family is pursued on waters by the Scarab King:
Egon Spengler of The Real Ghostbusters once remarked, "Sometimes I think the universe just waits for me to get cocky."
In Robot Chicken "Star Wars Episode II", Lando's deal with Vader gets worse and worse as he keeps complaining about it. Eventually he gets Genre Savvy enough to quit while he's ahead.
And later in that same special, Palpatine's borderline Humiliation Conga of problems (including his tray table breaking and spilling coffee in his lap, the airport losing his luggage, his new chair bolted to the floor and right under an air conditioning vent) ends with him saying to a guard, "Here, wanna watch me tempt fate?: Could this day get ANY worse? See, I said it ironically, so I should be safe." When next we see him, Vader is throwing him down to his death.
Parodied in The Simpsons, when the family find themselves competing in a torturous Japanese game-show, Homer tempts fate by saying that he prefers their current predicament to the "lightning round"; he gets struck by lightning. Then, recognising the pattern, he hopefully wonders whether there'll be an "ice-cream round"... and gets struck by lightning again.
Also, when Mr. Burns rounds up an all-star baseball team to defeat the Shelbyville plant, he challenges fate to have them all befall nine separate misfortunes. This turns out to be a subversion because only eight of his players do. (Tropes being tropes, the one who doesn't have a misfortune, Darryl Strawberry, is the one who's taking Homer's spot in the lineup.)
Seven, actually. Don Mattingly made it, but Burns tossed him for his sideburns.... which he didn't have. Hey, it's The Simpsons.
Burns also has this line in "Lisa the Vegetarian":
Burns: You know, Smithers, I think I'll donate a million dollars to the local orphanage... when pigs fly! (they laugh; the pig sails across the sky before them) Smithers: Will you be donating that million dollars now, Sir? Burns: Nooo, I'd still prefer not.
In "No Loan Again, Naturally", Marge is crying after landlord Ned Flanders has evicted the family from their home:
Homer: Don't be upset, Marge. At least it's not raining! (after a pause... nothing happens) See?
"Cape Feare", wherein the last thing Sideshow Bob says before being trampled by a parade (which includes elephants) is, "Surely there's no harm in lying in the middle of a public street?"
"When two best friends work together, not even God Himself can stop them!"
Family Guy's "Dial Meg for Murder" subverts this trope into a comment on the audience's racist assumptions: When Brian talks Meg out of robbing Mort Goldman's pharmacy and the two leave, Mort comments, "Well, at least I didn't get robbed!" Then, "How can I help you four fine black gentlemen today?" The show then cuts away to continue the story, leaving the viewer's familiarity with the trope and with common racial stereotyping to conclude the scene.
In "Brian Writes a Bestseller", when Stewie sees that he can't take a cab as he planned because he has no money, he exclaims: "Well, at least it's not raining." He immediately gets stabbed in the back.
In "Tales of a Third Grade Nothing" Stewie changes the failing Cabana Club into the sucessful pLace. When Brian notes that nothing can stop them now, Andy Dick shows up.
In "Stewie Goes for a Drive", there's a Call Back to "Brian Writes a Bestseller": when Stewie is running away from home:
Stewie: Well, it could be worse. At least I'm not getting stabbed by some random guy on the street. (starts raining) See, it's the exact opposite! (gets stabbed)
The "Wet Painters" episode of SpongeBob SquarePantsplayed with it incessantly. SpongeBob and Patrick are painting a house filled with valuable collectibles. Cue Murphy's Law, involving a paint bubble.
SpongeBob: What could be worse than a giant paint bubble?! Patrick: Ooh! I know this one! (produces a bubble wand, dips in into the paint, and blows another giant paint bubble) TWO giant paint bubbles! (the bubbles collide and form one MASSIVE paint bubble) SpongeBob: I don't think this can get any worse! Patrick: Nonsense! (produces a bike pump to hook up to the paint bubble, inflating it further)
SpongeBob: I'm every bit as cool as Larry. And if I'm not, let me be struck by... (thunder clap) ...a flying ice cream truck. (Cue falling ice cream truck.) AND LIVE! (Ice cream truck suspends in mid-air just above SpongeBob, then falls on him.)
On The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, "The Bird! The Bird!", Toad is whisked away by a Birdo with extremely bad vision, who thinks he's her baby. This leads the Mario Brothers and the Princess up the tallest mountain in an already snowy land to bring him back. At one point, Mario says that "it could be worse". When Luigi asks how, an Albatoss drops a Bob-Omb nearby. It and the next four Bob-Ombs are easily disposed of before they go off, but the next three are dropped farther up the path, setting off an avalanche.
In "King Mario of Cramalot", Mario, Luigi, The Princess, and Toad are manacled in a dungeon with a small circumference but a (temporarily) high ceiling. Mario says things could be worse, and Luigi asks how. Mario gives the example that the ceiling could start lowering until it crushed them. No points for guessing what starts to happen, but extra credit if you guessed that the ceiling would be pointy. Mario then says that the room could start filling up with water. It does... start, anyway.
On The Venture Bros., Henchman #24 used to be a perfect example of a Mauve Shirt, but once he and #21 started commenting on how they never die, he was finally killed off.
X-Men Evolution: In the episode "Cruise Control", the X-Men are taking a vacation on a cruise ship. When Boom-Boom is going to breakfast, Storm says to her, "Remember, low profile." Boom-Boom says, "It's just breakfast. What could happen?" Cue the breakfast scene, in which the X-Men accidentally reveal their powers to the passengers and cause a huge mess. Also it's Boom-Boom who starts the whole mess by throwing one of her bombs, although it's Jean using her powers to put out the fire caused by Boom-Boom's bomb that tips off the passengers.
Later in the episode, when they're on an island Boom-Boom says the same line ("What could happen?"), right before the volcano acts up.
In the 90's X-Men animated series, the X-Men break into a government compound to destroy many of the files of several mutants before attempting to escape the compound. Morph says the line, "See? What'd I tell ya? Clear sailing from here!" Cue the Sentinels marching through the trees. Quoth the Beast: "Oh dear".
One of the Camp Lazlo mini-shorts has a camper raking a big pile of leaves and saying "I can't imagine having to do that again." The plot of the short has Skip and Chip driving an out of control speedboat, so we expect the speedboat to ram into the leaves. Instead, it rams into another campmate who happens to walk by.
In the second episode of Slacker Cats Buckley and Eddie are arguing about who will steer the car and who will do the breaks. They both decide to steer.
Buckley: That'll work.
It doesn't.
Winx Club season 3 arguably would have been better off not subverting this trope: Stella says, of saving someone from her own homerealm to get her Enchantix, "I hope I don't have to save Chimera." When push comes to shove, she ends up saving her dad, left by Chimera and her mom escaping in his vehicle. So instead of maybe getting Chimera coming over to Stella's side, we end up getting Chimera being ignominiously defeated in an anticlimactic battle.
An episode of Rocko's Modern Life has a flashback where Ed Bighead has two balls left to win a bowling game. He throws the first one away as he claims he doesn't need two balls. As he uses the final ball, the announcer says that only something terrible that would haunt him for the rest of his life would cause this to not go perfectly. Ed then accidently destroys the entire building... and still doesn't get a single pin down.
Episode "Brago". As a boy leaves an escape tunnel:
Boy: So far so good. There's no one around. I'm in luck! (the barrel of a blaster rifle appears from off-screen pointing at him)
Episode "The Looters". As a pirate ship approaches a ship carrying a cargo of gold:
Pilot 1: Don't worry! Nothing can penetrate our craft's armor! Brak: Fire sleep missile! (missile is fired and hits) Pilot 2: It's sleeping gas! (both pilots start choking and fall unconscious)
"Pirates from Below". The enemy leader is waiting for a mine attached to the Quest's underwater probe to detonate. Unfortunately for him, Race Bannon has removed the mine and let it drift up to the leader's ship.
Enemy leader: Their time is almost up. It is just a matter of seconds. (BOOM!)
"Turu the Terrible". Dr. Quest and Race Bannon are sitting in front of a campfire.
Race Bannon: Well, so far so good, eh doctor? Dr. Quest: And surprisingly peaceful. Turu the Terrible:(detects them and starts making its warning call, then attacks)
"The Devil's Tower". Klaus is dive-bombing the Quests with grenades but repeatedly misses. He then yells "This time I cannot miss!" His next grenade ends up in the wing of the biplane he's flying, blowing up the wing and sending him spiraling down to his doom.
Total Drama Island: After the Killer Bass' tent is burned down, an angry Courtney declares that things couldn't get any worse. On cue, it starts to rain.
From the first episode:
DJ: It's our first challenge, how hard could it be? (cue the thousand-foot cliff) Oh sh—*bleep*
In one episode of Ed, Edd n' Eddy, Ed's bratty sister Sarah is acting like a princess and bossing the Eds around. At one point Eddy remarks "Next thing you know, she'll want a throne!" Gilligan Cut to "Queen Sarah" sitting on a hastily cobbled-together throne, and Eddy offering "A toast, to my big fat mouth!"
Superfriends (1973/74) episode "Too Hot to Handle". The heat causes wax statues of the main heroes to melt, so Wendy and Marvin remove the uniforms from the statues.
Wendy: Let's get these things packed away before something else happens to them.
Marvin: What's the rush? I mean, what else could possibly happen to them?
[The heat causes the overhead automatic fire sprinklers to go on]
In the Phineas and Ferb episode "A Hard Day's Knight", Candace agrees to dress up like a princess for their medieval fair. After a few moments she wonders "Wait a sec. Could this be one of those things that backfires horribly on me? Nah." Throughout the rest of the episode, she suffers indignity after indignity.
In the very first episode, Twilight Sparkle brushes off Princess Celestia's advice to make some friends, saying "The fate of all Equestria doesn't depend on me making friends". By the next episode, it's clear that actually, it does.
In "Look Before You Sleep," Twilight ends up lecturing Applejack and Rarity after their bickering spoils Twilight's first slumber party, and ends her rant with "Is there anything else that could possibly go wrong?!" The thunderstorm outside swiftly worsens, and a lightning bolt strikes a nearby tree and threatens to send it crashing into Twilight's house.
In "Owl's Well that Ends Well," Spike causes trouble because of his jealousy over Owlowiscious the owl, and ends up running away from home after getting a lecture from Twilight. As he trudges, alone and feeling unloved, through the Everfree Forest, he asks himself "Can it get any worse?" It almost immediately starts raining.
"The Best Night Ever" pretty much starts with this, with the Mane Six indulging in a Crowd Song about how all their hopes and dreams for the Grand Galloping Gala are about to come true. Naturally, they don't. Then near the end of the episode, Celestia and Twilight Sparkle step into the main hall and find that the others have laid waste to the entire party. Thinking she's been utterly humiliated in front of her mentor, Twilight remarks "At least things can't get any worse..." A moment later, a horde of wild animals stampedes into the room with an insanely frustrated Fluttershy on their heels.
The original My Little Pony cartoon used this in the pilot episode's opening theme song. The lines "No sign of trouble in sight" and "May all your days be bright" prove to be tempting fate because soon after the ponies are attacked by the goons of a villain seeking to bring about The Night That Never Ends.
One Tom and Jerry cartoon was about a white laboratory mouse that had consumed several explosives who escaped and is threatening to destroy everything in its path once it explodes. Tom, after hearing about this exploding white mouse on the radio, actually tries to catch said mouse, but it turns out to be his archnemesis Jerry, who apparently disguised himself as the white mouse by covering himself with flour. Shortly after Jerry's disguise is accidentally washed off, the real white mouse arrives, at which the radio tells Tom that "the explosives inside the mouse have deteriorated and is no longer dangerous, so the white mouse will not explode." Jerry immediately runs for cover just as the mouse decides to explode anyway on Tom...
Stunt Dawgs: Every time Lucky makes a comment on how things could have become worse, they DO become worse just like he said they would. He also falls victim of the trope whenever it's commented on how nothing bad has happened to him lately. One would think that, after all the times he said things could have been worse without hinting on how and nothing making things worse, he'd learn to avoid the trope.
In the South Park episode "Marjorine", Butters is forced by the other boys to fake his death as part of a plan to infiltrate the girls. His parents are grief-stricken, at which point a random old man suddenly shows up to try and convince Butters's Dad not to rebury him at an old Indian burial ground in a bid to bring him back. Of course, Mr. Scotch wasn't even aware of the burial ground, so all the man did was give him the idea.
In "Cartman's Mom is Still a Dirty Slut" the doctor notes Mephesto should be fine as long as the power doesn't go out. When it immediately does, he adds "Who didn't see that coming a mile away, huh?"
One episode of The Life and Times of Juniper Lee features Juniper tempting fate by commenting on how there hasn't been any magical emergencies lately despite the warnings from the more Genre Savvy Monroe.
All the time on Jimmy Two-Shoes, to the point where Jimmy's Catch Phrase is "Like that's even possible." Needless to say, it is.
Danny Phantom, episode Reign Storm, after Danny stuffed Dash's locker full with toilet paper:
Sam: Nice. Using your powers to stuff toilet paper into a locker. He's gonna find out it's you.
Danny: Have you seen his grades? (together with Tuck)Never gonna happen.
Dash: Hey! This is Fenton wipe! *glares at Danny*
Sam: "Never" is karma's doorbell. Ding-dong, it's for you.
Hermann Goering reputedly said, "If bombs drop on Berlin, you may call me Meyer."
Captain William "Buckey" O'Neill of the Rough Riders during the Spanish-American War was strolling up and down the lines in plain view. When one of his soldiers asked him to keep his head down, he responded with "Sergeant, the Spanish bullet isn't made that will kill me." A few minutes later, he caught a bullet that went in through his mouth and out the back of his head, killing him instantly.
As worded in Escape from Alcatraz, "No-one has ever escaped from Alcatraz, and no-one ever will." 34 people attempted to escape, but everyone was recaptured or killed, one when he reached shore. Five were unaccounted for and probably drowned.
Although the MythBusters tried it with the same resources, and made it.
It was widely boasted before the Titanic's ill-fated maiden voyage that not even God could sink her. As mentioned in another page, it turned out that God loves a challenge.
This quotation was included in the James Cameronmovie (along with every other well-known anecdote about the Titanic).
General William Slim's book Defeat into Victory; he said during the catastrophic retreat from Burma: "It could be worse, it could be raining." And sure enough, a few hours later, it was!
In a more recent example, former President of Taiwan Chen during his time in office ran a fierce anti-corruption platform. He even stated that if he was ever convicted of corruption that he should suffer most severe punishment the law could mete out. Now that he and his family have been indicted for, among other things, embezzling billions (in terms of US CURRENCY) from Taiwan's coffers, guess what prosecutors are asking for in terms of punishment?
Nazi field marshal Fedor Von Bock, who was nicknamed The Dier, was famous for lecturing his troops about dying for the glory of Nazi Germany. He was killed by a British plane, along with his wife and daughter, being the only one of Hitler's field marshals who was killed by enemy fire.
The September 11 attacks: A Discovery Channel documentary somewhere in 1999 about the 1993 WTC bombing in which the narrator spoke too soon and was tempting fate. The documentary ended with the narrator quoting the man who drove the van full of explosives into the garage saying something in the lines of "Next time, we'll bring them down!" to which the narrator concluded that for the WTC, there would never be a next time! Unfortunately, we all know who turned out to be right.
Bush's infamous "Mission Accomplished" spoken early in the Iraq War. [2]◊
Supporters later asserted that in this instance, the President was referring to the narrower mission of removing Saddam Hussein from power, although at the time, the President stated that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended", and "in the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed". Ninety-six percent of American soldiers killed in Iraq were killed in guerrilla warfare after the speech.
Star Trek technical consultant Michael Okuda tempted fate by saying that NASA did not share Starfleet's concern about 25-year-old spaceships as the Columbia was nearly that old and still flying in his text commentary for the Star Trek 3 Special Edition DVD. Shortly after the release of the DVD, the Columbia burned up on re-entry.
The Swiss managed to get a subversion with their experimental nuclear reactor at Lucens. The head of the project assured the federal council that "everything is safe, and nothing can go wrong." On the same day there was a reactor meltdown. But since they feared something like that might happen, the reactor was built in a cave which was then simply sealed off for the next decade.
Let's not forget the UK military putting automated death machines under the control of a system called Skynet. Nothing bad yet, but I think we can all agree it is only a matter of time.
Field Marshall Rommel was once watching a propaganda film with his men when it showed a clip of him boasting that the Africa Corp would never again retreat. Everyone (including Rommel) immediately burst into laughter.
The RAF roundel is basically a big target painted onto the side of British military aircraft. Scuttlebutt has it that this was originally designed to be a deliberate taunt for anyone trying to shoot it down.
The same could be said of any Air Force roundel in the same style.
Except that the roundel used by the British is in the style of a bullseye. The New Zealanders upped the ante by centering a flightless bird in theirs, at which point they had to be doing it just to openly mock their opponents.
The Royal Flying Corps chose a roundel design because ground troops found it hard to tell a Union Flag from a Maltese Cross (the symbol the Imperial German Army Air Service used) when painted on an aircraft's wing three thousand feet above and moving at 90 mph. The French selected a roundel design to match the British, because they were on the same side, and wanted to minimise mistakes.
One of Gerald Durrell's experiences, recounted in Fillets of Plaice, involved a visit to Mamfe from the District Commissioner. Within two seconds of the DC commenting that he wouldn't have thought you'd get very many animals so close to civilization, the palm leaf fan attached to the ceiling gave way and disgorged a variety of spiders, bats, and even a young green mamba.
The Iroquois Theater advertised itself as "Absolutely Fireproof". It managed 37 days and the title of worst building fire in U.S. history.
The BBC tempted fate during the Moon landing to a horrifying degree that — thankfully — never went through. While the astronauts were on the moon, the BBC decided to play "Space Oddity" by David Bowie. It was a space-y song, which is understandable. However, the last few lines of the song have Major Tom ask Ground Control to tell his wife he loves her, before his circuit dies. This implies he never makes it back to Earth, which was pretty creepy when you realized that no one knew if the Apollo astronauts would make it back alive.
At the turn of the 20th century, a brilliant politician and the Russian prime minister Pyotr Stolypin said that given 20 years of peace he'd be able to turn Russia into a prosperous and advanced power. Before long the country was plunged into the bloodiest war so far, had two revolutions break out with the second of which the Russian Empire was gone.
To be fair, he was not even around at the start of World War I, since he was assassinated in 1911. There is still a lot of speculation about what would have happened if he managed to keep Russia out of the war.
While en route to California in June 1846, Tamsen Donner wrote, "I never could have believed we could have traveled so far with so little difficulty. Indeed, if I do not experience something far worse than I have yet done, I shall say the trouble is all in getting started." A few months later, she did experience something far worse.
In a 1961 speech Khrushchev said that "the current generation of Soviet people will live under communism." Not only did the plan to complete the transition from socialism to communism by 1980 fail, the generation he was referring to now lives under liberal democracy capitalism authoritarianism fascismsomething that is definitely not communism (not to mention the other 14 republics, where the results of The Great Politics Mess-Up vary greatly).
The game(?) where one chants the mantra, Bloody Mary the required amount of times would qualify. Not sure how many times it actually requires, and it may vary.
Lee Harvey Oswald's last words were, "Aww, there ain't going to be anybody shooting at me, you're just being melodramatic."
The last thing the JFK heard was, "Mr. President, you can't say Dallas doesn't love you,"
In April 2010, in response to Iranian cleric Hajotoselam Kazem Swdighi's proclamation that women dressing immodestly causes earthquakes, Jen McCreight, a student at Purdue set up an event called "Boobquake", encouraging women to dress less modestly than usual, to prove that it wouldn't cause an earthquake. The day of the event there was an earthquake.
There is an earthquake somewhere in the world every 5 to 10 minutes or so.
Maurice Krafft famously said: "I am never afraid because I have seen so much eruptions in 23 years that even if I die tomorrow, I don't care". Guess what happened 45 minutes later at Mount Unzen.
So, it's the sixteenth century, and you, the King of Spain, have decided to liberate England from the heresy of protestant rule by conquering the shit out of it. So, you build the biggest naval fleet in recent memory and merrily sail it up to England, whistling all the way. And what do you call it? The "Great and Most Fortunate Armada", also known as the "Invincible Armada". After being repulsed by the English the fleet gets caught in a storm that takes it all the way round the British Isles, sinking most of the ships along the way, and what's left gets destroyed by Sir Francis Drake. Frankly, you deserved it.
General John Sedgwick, during The American Civil War, claimed that his enemies "couldn't hit an elephant at this distance." These were his last words, as he was gunned down by a Confederate sniper just seconds later.
Those Wacky Nazis just had to go and call their state "The Millennial Reich", didn't they?
Similarly before them, the emperor Qin Shi Huang of the Qin dynasty, said that his dynasty would last for a thousand years. It then only lasted less than 15 years of all the other dynasties.
According to The Other Wiki, leading up to the St. Nazaire Raid during World War 2, one of the German commanders, when asked what would they do if the base was subject to an attack by British Commandos, replied that "an attack on the base would be hazardous and highly improbable."
German soccer side Vfl Bochum managed to barely keep their prestigious place in the national league for about twenty years. In 1992, fans began to wear shirts with the new-coined adjective "unabsteigbar" ("irrelegable"). Guess what happened the next year...
Possibly a reference to this occurred in 2011: regional rival BVB Dortmund had an almost insurmountable lead to win the national title, which hadn't happened for nearly a decade. Everyone from the team was so careful not to say the word "championship" that the fans started to carry mocking signs saying "Klassenerhalt!" ("non-relegation"). It worked - Dortmund won the 2011 Bundesliga.
During World War I, a British battlecruiser was named Invincible. During the Battle of Jutland, it was blown into fragments by an ammunition explosion and sank with most of its thousand-man crew.
Jean Drapeau said that the Olympics could no more lose money than a man could have a baby. Although he was mayor of Montreal, he apparently didn't know his citizens very well, and the 1976 Montreal Olympics were nothing short of an economic disaster. He died in 1999—eight years before Montreal finally payed off the Olympics (around 2007). Much of the problem was the sheer profiteering by Quebec businesses and citizens.
The Great Leap Forward. Admittedly, we have the benefit of hindsight in our cynical day and age, but one can't help wonder whether such a name invited the subsequent catastrophe or not.
One advertisement for Northrup Grumman says, "How do cyberterrorists get past 75,000 of the industries best? They don't." Oops.
