History Main / EntertaininglyWrong

* In ''MassEffect3'', the plot of the ''Leviathan DLC'' revolves around Shepard trying to track down the Leviathan, believed to be a Reaper who has mysteriously gone rogue from the others. [[spoiler: Despite all of the mounting evidence pointing to this conclusion, it turns out that Leviathan is actually a giant sea-monster, one of TheRemnant of the race that came ''before'' the Reapers and whose image the Reapers stole for their own.]]

* The premise of ''[[http://www.tthfanfic.org/wholestory.php?no=19932 No Place Like Eureka]]'', a ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer''/''{{Eureka}}'' crossover fanfic, is that Dawn gets embodied in Eureka rather than Sunnydale, using Carter and Stark's DNA instead of Buffy's. When the Eureka residents realize that something is strange about Dawn, they come to the perfectly logical -- and entirely wrong -- conclusion that she was born in the future and sent back in time for some inscrutable reason. Hellgods and mystical Keys aren't really on their radar...

* The ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Discworld/MenAtArms'' pulls one of these on the reader (and Corporal Carrot). We're introduced to Angua, a new female recruit to the Night Watch, very much a Boy's Club. Both Vimes and Colon complain about her being the worst of the new recruits brought in to diversify the Watch, because she's "a w--" before being interrupted by an explosion. As it turns out, they're not complaining about her being female, but about her being [[spoiler:a werewolf]]. Even better, Carrot tries to explain their old-fashioned attitudes to her, but only gets as far as "because you're a w--" before she interupts him. He ''was'' trying to say "woman", because he didn't know about the other thing, but she assumes he does. A double whammy of entertaining wrongness.

* In a comic based on ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' Riddler manages to deduce that Batman has to be a rich Gothamite with a personal grudge against crime. He proceeds to accost a roomful of suspects matching the criteria. Bruce Wayne is not among them.

* ''{{New 52}}'': In ''Action Comics #2'', LexLuthor captures {{Superman}} and subjects him to torture and experimentation. At one point, Luthor orders him to "drop the act" and reveal his true form. Superman asks what he's talking about, and Luthor carts in a dead alien dog, saying that since their DNA and such have similarities, then logically Superman shape-shifted into a human form to blend in. Superman bursts into laughter at the ridiculousness of Luthor's theory.

* In ''TheSalvationWar'' , the demon lord Belial was extremely confused about why [[MugglesDoItBetter the humans were slaughtering the demonic hordes]] even though they used to only cower in fear a "mere" five millenium ago. He thought to his own forges, and how his slight refinements to tridents made them much better. He came to the conclusion that humans had been so scared of the mighty demons that they stockpiled all many great weapons and only use it now that they faced extinction. Wrong, sure, but much closer to the fact than the rest of Hell assuming that [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien humans suddenly have magic]].

** [[spoiler: The White House assumes that the sky volcano that was randomly moving around Detroit, spreading lava everywhere, was a lesson learned by the demons to cause more damage than the previous one that stayed in the same place. What really happened was a combination of the Naga's on the other end unable to make the portal in unison combined with the portal's guide demon being shot down before it could be opened.]]

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', upon learning that his friend and leader is also the father of Monkey D. Luffy, Emporio Ivankov makes the perfectly valid assumption that Luffy's brother Ace is ''also'' the son of said friend and leader and assists Luffy in a jailbreak to save Ace from certain death. Revealed only after the jailbreak is [[spoiler:Luffy and Ace are ''not'' blood-related siblings.]]

* A lesser known real life example occurs when Atahualpa, the last Inca emperor, hears about the Europeans approaching the Inca capital of Cuzco. Based on reports of these foreigners wearing helmets, he comes to an astonishingly brilliant conclusion had he only known about European warfare. He notes that the Europeans have cooking pots (metal helmets for protection) over their heads. Atahualpa believed that anyone who wore cooking pots was crazy, which goes double if said people didn't even use those cooking pots for preparing food!
** Imagine his OhCrap reaction when he set an ambush in the capital with thousands of soldiers vs. slightly over 100 Europeans, only to have said helmets turn out to be armor making them nigh-impossible to kill with Inca weaponry. The diseases the Europeans carried only cranked it UpToEleven.

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', upon learning that his friend and leader is also the father of Monkey D. Luffy, Emporio Ivankov makes the perfectly valid assumption that Luffy's brother Ace is ''also'' the son of said friend and leader and assists Luffy in a jailbreak to save Ace from certain death. Revealed only after the jailbreak is [[spoiler:Luffy and Ace are ''not'' blood-related siblings]].
* ''Manga/RosarioToVampire'' pulled this with Tsukune's older cousin, she came to perfectly valid conclusion considering she didn't know about monsters being real prior to her arrival. Of course she was clearly not being entirely observant seeing as a succubus transformed right in front of her, a snow demon froze a goldfish in an unobscured line of sight before her, and a witch's magic kept dropping amusing weights on everyone that tried to talk to Tsukume
** That and a faerie like spirit came right out of the cursed mirror she was holding, and she was still in denial till All Hell broke loose at the ExtranormalInstitute she was visiting

* ''{{New 52}}'': In ''Action Comics #2'', LexLuthor captures {{Superman}} and subjects him to torture and experimentation. At one point, Luthor orders him to "drop the act" and reveal his true form. Superman asks what he's talking about, and Luthor carts in a dead alien dog, saying that since their DNA and such have similarities, then logically Superman shape-shifted into a human form to blend in. Superman burst into laughter at the ridiculousness of Luthor's theory.

* In RichieRich, the BigBad plan was to steal the money that was in the ultra secure safe that the Richie's had built into a mountain. [[spoiler:Turns out the safe was filled with almost nothing but photo albums, since 80 billion dollars were in banks.]]

* In RichieRich, the BigBad plan was to steal the money that was in the ultra secure safe that the Richie's had built into a mountain. [[spoiler=Turns out the safe was filled with almost nothing but photo albums, since 80 billion dollars were in banks.]]

* In the ''Series/TheAndyGriffithShow,'' Andy and Barney came to the completely logical conclusion that Opie's friend, "Mr. Ockley" [[ImaginaryFriend wasn't real]], given the description Opie gave (jingles while he walks, can blow smoke out of his ears, runs around the top of trees, has 12 hands, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking wears a silver hat]]). Turns out he is a tree climber, covered with tools, and can use a trick where he catches smoke from his mouth, and releases it by his ears [[note]]Believe it or not, that last is actually realistic for certain people, as the ear and mouth share a connection, and having a hole or rip in the eardrum allows air to migrate from the mouth to the ear[[/note]].

* Happens in the ''HarryPotter'' series, most prominently in ''HarryPotter/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince'' and ''HarryPotter/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows''. In ''Half-Blood Prince'', Dumbledore and Harry both come to the perfectly valid conclusion that Voldemort had tried to get a job at Hogwarts in an attempt to get ahold of an item belong to a Hogwarts Founder for use as a SoulJar. In ''Deathly Hallows'', Harry realizes they had it backwards, and that Voldemort used the interview to ''hide'' one of his Soul Jars in a hidden room on the way to Dumbledore's office. Actually getting the job would've [[XanatosGambit just been a bonus]].

[[AC: RealLife]]
* An example of ItWillNeverCatchOn from RealLife: someone predicted television would never be successful in the United States because "Americans don't have the attention span to sit and watch a box for an hour". Logically sound, but based on wrong assumptions.
* A lesser known real life example occurs when Atahualpa, the last Inca emperor, hears about the Europeans approaching the Inca capital of Cuzco. Based on reports of these foreigners wearing helmets, he comes to an astonishingly brilliant conclusion had he only known about European warfare. He notes that the Europeans have cooking pots (metal helmets for protection) over their heads. Atahualpa believed that anyone who wore cooking pots was crazy, which goes double if said people didn't even use those cooking pots for preparing food!
** Imagine his OhCrap reaction when he set an ambush in the capital with thousands of soldiers vs. slightly over 100 Europeans, only to have said helmets turn out to be armor making them nigh-impossible to kill with Inca weaponry. The diseases the Europeans carried only cranked it UpToEleven.

Ev'ry trick that he could play he used to strip her mask away.\\

"Her English is too good," he said\\
"That clearly indicates that she is foreign.\\

* In ''MyFairLady'', the rival dialectitian picks up on all the clues that Eliza's perfect English is the product of coaching, but he assumes that her ''manners'' are innate, and thus concludes that she's a foreign aristocrat instead of that she's a lower-class Englishwoman.

* In ''{{Kaspall}}'', [[http://kaspall.xepher.net/archive/pg261.html Sam concludes that the world would be a lot better]] if it was just humans, because there would be no FantasticRacism.

* The ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Discworld/MenAtArms'' pulls one of these on the reader (and Corporal Carrot). We're introduced to Angua, a new female recruit to the Night Watch, very much a Boy's Club. Both Vimes and Colon complain about her being the worst of the new recruits brought in to diversify the Watch, because she's "a w--" before being interrupted by an explosion. As it turns out, they're not complaining about her being female, but about her being [[spoiler:a werewolf]].

* In ''TheSalvationWar'' , the demon lord Belial was extremely confused about why [[MugglesDoItBetter the humans were slaughtering the demonic hordes]] even though they used to only cower in fear a "mere" five millenium ago. He thought to his own forges, and how his slight refinements to tridents made them much better. He came to the conclusion that humans had been so scared of the mighty demons that they stockpiled all many great weapons and only use it now that they faced extinction. Wrong, sure, but much closer to the fact than the rest of Hell assuming that [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien humans suddenly have magic]].
** [[spoiler: The White House assumes that the sky volcano that was randomly moving around Detroit, spreading lava everywhere, was a lesson learned by the demons to cause more damage than the previous one that stayed in the same place. What really happened was a combination of the Naga's on the other end unable to make the portal in unison combined with the portal's guide demon being shot down before it could be opened.]]

* In the ''Series/TheAndyGriffithShow,'' Andy and Barney came to the completely logical conclusion that Opie's friend, "Mr. Ockley" [[ImaginaryFriend wasn't real]], given the description Opie gave (jingles while he walks, can blow smoke out of his ears, runs around the top of trees, has 12 hands, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking wears a silver hat]]). Turns out he is a tree climber, covered with tools, and can use a trick where he catches smoke from his mouth, and releases it by his ears.

* In the ''AndyGriffinShow,'' Andy and Barney came to the completely logical conclusion that Opie's friend, "Mr. Ockley" [[ImaginaryFriend wasn't real]], given the description Opie gave (jingles while he walks, can blow smoke out of his ears, runs around the top of trees, has 12 hands, and [[ArsonMurderJaywalking wears a silver hat]]). Turns out he is a tree climber, covered with tools, and can use a trick where he catches smoke from his mouth, and releases it by his ears.