History Main / DIYDisaster

* A reputed prank to create the same effect is to in a school lab connect the water and gas taps with a hose, and briefly turn both on. Then when the next class want to use bunsen burners, water will come out of them.
* While men usually have this story in regards to household repairs, women tend to have them regarding beauty treatments. The internet abounds with stories of hair being turned unnatural colors, terrible haircuts, rashes and burns due to homemade facials and waxes, etc.

* In ''Eppo'', an old Dutch comic, the eponymous character once switched the gas- and water pipes in a DoItYourselfPlumbingProject. Cue water streaming out of the heating part of his boiler and the shower turning into an impromptu [[KillItWithFire flamethrower]].

* Stuart McLean's ''Radio/TheVinylCafe'' story "Odd Jobs." Dave decides to install an extra electrical outlet in the kitchen and several of his neighbors drop by to help. By the end of the day, there's been an electrical fire, there are several big holes in the walls, one wall has been torn down entirely, and the electricity is cut off.
* Newspaper columnist D. L. Stewart recounts, via his book ''Fathers Are People Too'', an attempt by he and his neighbor to install a light fixture in the basement. They make two critical mistakes in the process: first, they forget to turn off the power before removing the old fixture (leading to the neighbor standing in the middle of the room with a melted screwdriver in his hand), then they do the wiring wrong, causing the upstairs lights to turn off when the downstairs lights turn on. Fortunately, both of these problems are successfully fixed in the end.

* ''ManWithOneRedShoe'': agents bugging Tom Hanks' hotel room have to make hasty exit. Jim Belushi, having to use his bathroom, discovers that flushing the toilet causes faucet to run, etc.

* Subverted in an episode of ''TheGeorgeLopezShow''. George tries to demonstrate that his kitchen sink repair worked, and the entire kitchen begins rumbling. It's quickly revealed that the rumble is being caused by an actual earthquake.

* This is often the result of Roger Fox's attempts at fixing things in FoxTrot. Ironically inverted with his attempt at making wine, where the (absolutely terribly-made) wine acted as a good garbage disposal detergent.

* On ''TheBradyBunch'', Greg bought a used car and tried to fix it up, part of the result of which was faulty wiring. The horn made the windshield wipers work, for example.

* In ''TheGoldenGirls'', when Dorothy and Rose try to fix their bathroom themselves, their first attempt leads to them redoing the plumbing such that flushing the toilet makes the sink run, the spigots on the sink control the shower, etc.

* On an episode of ''ThatsSoRaven'', a very prominent business man is to visit Victor's restaurant. Victor creates a Foreman grill-type device that both "grills and chills." He demonstrated his creation by having it grill a steak and chill some jumbo shrimp. However, he crossed a few wires and instead, the grill flash freezes the steak, and the chiller turns the shrimp into charred lump with tails.
* Most of the humor on ''TheRedGreenShow'' is derived from this sort of thing.

* [[TheSimpsons Homer Simpson]] is a frequent offender. His attempts to build anything usually results in major disaster. Building a doghouse ends up with his filling a swear jar. A spice rack he builds falls apart. A homemade barbecue [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible gets mistaken for modern art]]. When he is showing his half brother around the house, he flicks a switch that he doesn't know the function of, which turns on the Christmas lights on the roof (which have been there since 1985).

** This appears to be a continuation of the ShoePhone gag. In one episode where Max and 99 are undercover as news agents, they are given (a) a camera disguised as a tape recorder and (b) a tape recorder disguised as a camera. When the Q-type is asked why he didn't just give them a camera and a tape recorder, he replies "my mind doesn't work that way".

* ''TheFairlyOddParents'' Has Timmy's dad cause an enormous flood whenever he goes near ANYTHING with a monkey wrench.

* Jacqui's house in ''WapsiSquare'' seems to qualify. [[http://wapsisquare.com/comic/gurgle/ The toilet flushes whenever the phone rings.]]

* ''Film/TheThreeStooges'' had a short where they were plumbers, but their services left water coming out of everything '''but''' the faucets.

* Stuart McLean's ''Radio/TheVinylCafe'' story "Odd Jobs." Dave decides to install an extra electrical outlet in the kitchen and several of his neighbours drop by to help. By the end of the day, there's been an electrical fire, there are several big holes in the walls, one wall has been torn down entirely, and the electricity is cut off.

* [[TheSimpsons Homer Simpson]] is a frequent offender. His attempts to build anything usually results in major disaster. Building a doghouse ends up with his filling a swear jar. A spice rack he builds falls apart. A homemade barbecue [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible gets mistaken for modern art]].

* ''GastonLagaffe'' meddled with the office building's plumbing once, causing water to spray from Mr. Boulier's heater. On other occasions he turned a fridge into a pressure cooker, made a motorcycle ride in reverse and switched around all the keys on a typewriter.

* An insurance commerical has a guy inside his house flipping a light switch up and down and looking around trying to figure out which lights it controls. It then cuts to an exterior shot of the house showing that the ''neighbor's'' garage door is going up and down in time with the lightswitch, crushing their card under it.

* ''TheFairlyOddParents'' Has Timmy's dad cause an enormus flood whenever he goes near ANYTHING with a monkey wrench.

A DIYDisaster is when a device's faulty nature is shown by the fact that when a button is pushed or a lever is pulled that is supposed to do one thing, it does something else that a different button or lever is supposed to do, such as a car's window button activates the windshield wipers. It's frequently used after someone has tried to repair or modify the device in question to show their mechanical ineptitude. In spite of the name, this doesn't need to be the result of a botched do-it-yourself job; the device could be wired that way on purpose, for example. There's also a variation where the electricity and plumbing (and sometimes the gas) get mixed up, [[EpicFail so you get water coming out of the lightbulbs or some similar mix-up]]. Doesn't make the slightest bit of sense, but RuleOfFunny applies.

Not to be confused with WhatDoesThisButtonDo, where a person's inexperience with the device in question, rather than the device's faulty nature, causes the unexpected result. If a person doesn't know what a button does and presses it anyways, something unexpected happens, and [[HilarityEnsues hilarity ensues]], it's WhatDoesThisButtonDo. If the button is ''supposed'' to do one thing, but when pressed, does another, it's a DIYDisaster.

Though a DIYDisaster can be an EpicFail, an EpicFail that results from a do-it-yourself project is not necessarily a DIY disaster. If a person presses a button and something completely unexpected happens that shouldn't have happened at all, it's an EpicFail. If a person presses a button and something happens that's supposed to happen when they push a ''different'' button, it's DIYDisaster.

Similar to WiperStart, although a DIYDisaster is the result of the design of the car, not the incompetence of its operator. One of the worst results that can come about from DoomItYourself or a DoItYourselfPlumbingProject. Almost always PlayedForLaughs.

* One episode of ''SportsNight'' features Jeremy's decision to personally Y2K-proof the studio. After getting everybody's cooperation in staging a mockup show to demonstrate his work, he apparently manages to blow out everything electronic in the studio, shortly before the live airing of the real show. This leads to the rest of the cast scrambling to do the show from a different and disliked studio while Jeremy suffers a HeroicBSOD. At the end of the show he was finally informed that last night after he'd left the electricians had done some work behind a console without relabeling the buttons... so that instead of starting the test, he'd hit the main power switch.

* ''The Fairly Odd Parents'' Has Timmy's dad cause an enormus flood whenever he goes near ANYTHING with a monkey wrench.

* A reputed prank to create the same effect is to in a school lab connect the water and gas taps with a hose, and briefly turn both on. Then when the next class want to use bunsen burners, water will come out of them.