Basic Trope: Someone is granted three wishes. The first wish is used on something trivial, the second wish backfires horribly, and the third wish is used to reverse the second wish.
- Straight: Bob is granted three wishes by genie. To test out his wishes, he first wishes for a sandwich. He puts a little bit more thought into his second wish, and wishes that his dead wife was alive again but the genie brings her back as a zombie. Bob then wishes that his wife was dead again for his third wish.
- Exaggerated: Bob's first wish for a mortgage check comes by insurance killing his son horribly. His second wish is to bring him back to life but he comes back as still mangled and in horrible pain and it is clear mundane injuries would not kill him. He uses his last wish to Mercy Kill his son who would suffer agony eternally otherwise.
- Downplayed: Bob wishes for a mansion full of money as his second wish, but loses his friends because he has nothing in common with them any more. He then wishes that he was just as poor as he was before he made the second wish, because he values his friends more than money.
- Justified:
- Bob is impulsive and doesn't like to plan, so he wastes his wishes without properly thinking about the consequences.
- Bob accidentally starts a sentence with "I wish...", not realising that this would use up on of his wishes until it has already been granted.
- Inverted: ???
- Subverted: Bob wishes for his wife to be alive, but the genie feels sympathy for Bob as he's obviously grieving, so brings his wife back as she was before she died.
- Double Subverted: Or so we thought- it turns out his wife's body was brought back, but not her personality. She's now Axe-Crazy and tries to murder Bob, forcing him to use his third wish to make her dead again.
- Parodied: ???
- Zig Zagged: Bob uses his first wish on something meaningful which greatly benefits him, but his second wish still backfires and he still reverses it with his third wish.
- Averted:
- Bob is only granted one wish by the genie.
- Bob is granted three wishes by the genie. Every wish he makes is useful and the audience is not alluded to thinking any wish will backfire.
- Enforced:
- If Bob used his wishes in a sensible way, the status quo would change too much.
- It's one way to drive home the Aesop of the day: Think before you leap.
- Lampshaded: "So you were just given three wishes... Yet here we all are, exactly as we were before- no wait, we're one ham sandwich richer. Well done on not wasting those wishes."
- Invoked: The genie tells Bob that the wishes will disappear if he doesn't use all of them within three minutes, pressurising him into making bad decisions.
- Exploited:
- Defied: Bob realises the potential of the three wishes and carefully plans out what he should use them on before he wishes for anything.
- Discussed: "Why is it always the stupid people who get given the wishes? If I got any wishes, the first thing I'd do would be to wish for more!"
- Conversed: "Oh look, Bob's just wasted everything. Guess this genie grants Idiot Balls as well as wishes."
- Implied: Alice hears that Bob's found a genie and rushes over to his house. By the time she gets there, the genie is gone and Bob is looking dejected while holding a ham sandwich.
I wish... I wish for a way back to the main page! And I wish for a huge pile of diamonds! Wait... what's that in the sky, directly above me? Aaaaaagh! I wish the diamonds would disappear!
