History Main / IMeantToDoThat

* ComicBook/{{Loki}} is dreadfully prone to defeat himself/themself and plans going awry so accidentally fixing or breaking the situation (guy could take the title God of Unintended Consequences) but this so never stopped the jerk from claiming that he meant to do that...highlights include: taking credit for turning [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]] back after the frog incident (actually the Asgardians destroyed the machine powering the spell); and claiming that he [[Comicbook/JourneyIntoMystery meant to die]] in the Siege of Asgard (past Loki's ghost downright denied this, but he isn't the Loki of the now so his opinion doesn't count); or meant to turn [[ComicBook/VoteLoki Nisa]] into an IntrepidReporter by destroying her home.

* ''Anime/SamuraiChamploo'' uses this with an overblown samurai who claims he's going to make it big one day. In a duel, he rushes up, draws his sword -- and gazes skyward when it flies out of his hand and into the air. It looks like it's all over for the blowhard, until the sword falls from the sky and lands on his opponent's head, knocking him out. His response? "That was...my Flying Dragon technique!"

* ''ComicBook/StarWarsDarthVader''. A large part of the plot involves Darth Vader having to compete with cyborg rivals for his job, created by Cylo. Afterwards Emperor Palpatine tries to explain it all away as part of his EvilPlan. Vader is having none of it.

* ''Manga/AcchiKocchi'': Subverted when Mayoi opens her second umbrella (having lent the first one to Hime), only to have it break and shoot forwards spear-like. The rest of the cast expect her to laugh it off as another of her usual goofy tricks... but Mayoi's reaction is actually a surprised "Eh?". Nobody was expecting it from her, of all people.

* In the math round ''Series/{{8oo10cdc}}'', after correctly guessing the correct steps, or while Rachel Riley is explaining the steps, sometimes comedians will act as if they knew it all along and were just leaving it to Rachel to solve.

* Subverted in ''Manga/AcchiKocchi'', when Mayoi opens her second umbrella (having lent the first one to Hime), only to have it break and shoot forwards spear-like. The rest of the cast expect her to laugh it off as another of her usual goofy tricks...but Mayoi's reaction is actually a surprised "Eh?". Nobody was expecting it from her, of all people.

* Jake "The Snake" Roberts has said this was how he invented his FinishingMove, the DDT. He had his opponent in a front facelock and accidentally fell backwards, knocking his opponent out in the process.

* ''Webcomic/{{Sinfest}}'':
** [[http://www.sinfest.net/view.php?date=2001-06-29 Percy gets himself entangled]].
** [[http://www.sinfest.net/view.php?date=2004-01-01 Percy in the garbage.]]

* Mordecai in ''Webcomic/{{Lackadaisy}}'' invokes this trope [[http://www.lackadaisycats.com/comic.php?comicid=120 with the help of some stairs]]

** When Hobbes misses [[RunningGag a pounce on Calvin]], he rolls hits the ground, rolls, stretches, licks, and pads off, nose in the air. Calvin, not fooled for a second, muses that Hobbes wants him to ''think'' he meant to do that. This is even better if you own a cat, because they do ''exactly'' the same thing.

** Inverted wholeheartedly by magician Tommy Cooper, who obsessively honed his performances so that it always looked like he was utterly screwing up his own tricks, before triumphantly arriving at the intended result [[CatchPhrase "Just like that"/]] In his case, he really ''did'' mean to do that, and any comments he made to that effect were scripted to take advantage of the audience's belief that he was floundering. [[FunnyAneurysmMoment He was so well known for it that when he suffered a fatal heart attack on stage, the audience initially thought it was all just part of the act.]]

* One time when Music/DemiLovato was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lb2JV_WCttc performing "Until You're Mine",]] she tripped and started laughing. During one of the instrumental breaks, she said "I planned that, the whole falling thing? That was already planned."

** When he suffered some bankruptcies in the '90's, he insisted they were actually strategic business decisions.

* Batly from ''Series/EureekasCastle'' is known to say this following bad landings. Which, in his case, is [[CaptainCrash nearly every landing]].

* Robbie Rotten frequently does this in ''Series/LazyTown''.

** Another instance (now the page image) features Calvin making a fool of himself while trying to catapult a large snowball from [[SeesawCatapult a springboard consisting of a plank and a log]].

* In ''ComicBook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog'', in a bid for publicity, [[VillainWithGoodPublicity Ixis Naugus]] heals Bunnie of a wound she received in battle. Not only does he do so, [[spoiler:he turns her back into a fully organic Mobian]]. He clearly is surprised by this, but (at the urging of Geoffrey St. John) quickly claims he meant to do it.

* In ''FanFic/TheWeaverOption'' the Mighty Iconoclastic Brotherhood was sent to assault the Cadian Gate. While the exact details aren't revealed, the Dark Council which ordered the assault insist that everything went according to the plans of Chaos and disagreeing on that is treason. What was left of the Brotherhood disagreed and took to piracy.

* Robbie Rotten frequently does this in Series/LazyTown

* ''Videogame/TheRiddleOfMasterLu'': Ripley peeks down into the tomb of the first emperor of China with a matchstick and drops it when it burns his fingers. It hits a line of oil that lights up all the ancient lamps within. When Mei Chen asks what happened, he says he saw that would happen and dropped it on purpose.

* If you ask Remilia Scarlet from ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' what she won in the SuperPowerLottery, she'll boastfully tell you that she won the ability to [[WindsOfDestinyChange Manipulate Fate]]. If you ask her little sister, Flandre, she'll tell you that Remilia won the ability to invoke this trope whenever she wants to look cooler than she really is.

* In ''WebComic/StandStillStaySilent'', Onni shows up in Mora with just a bag too small to contain even a change of clothes. When Taru asks him if it's really all he packed, we get to see a brief flash-back in which Onni's refusal to board the boat until the very last minute causes him to abandon most of his luggage on the pier and drop the one extra bag he had managed to grab in the water. Onni's official explanation? He "has no need for wordly possessions".

* ''WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic'' makes fun of this during his first ''Top 11 Nostalgia Critic F*ckups'' video, when he gets to all of his spelling mistakes. He points out how people though the typo at the end of ''Film/AKidInKingArthursCourt'', which actually ''was'' a legitimate typo, was done on purpose as a joke since he spends a good portion of the episode beating his head with a book trying to forget he ever saw it:

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad''

* Lady Aurelia Hammerlock from VideoGame/BorderlandsThePreSequel has a skill called "Warning Shot", which grants her bonuses whenever she misses a shot with a sniper rifle. She also frequently insists that she's missing on purpose during this effect.

* ''Manga/OnePiece'': Zeo seems like a rather harmless villain at first, to the point that Brook accidentally stood on his face for a while without noticing. But then Zeo reveals his master plan. Brook was never standing on his face at all. Zeo was in fact headbutting the bottom of Brook's foot! [[http://garththedestroyer.deviantart.com/art/Fruition-263531318 Genius!]] ''Any''time things don't work out for Zeo, he claims the negative result was what he was aiming for. To the point that he claims that he let himself be stabbed in order to dull the blade.

* ''Anime/SamuraiChamploo'' uses this with an overblown samurai who claims he's going to make it big one day. In a duel, he rushes up, draws his sword -- and gazes skyward when it flies out of his hand and into the air. It looks like it's all over for the blowhard, until the sword falls from the sky and lands on his opponent's head, knocking him out. His response? "That was... my Flying Dragon technique!"

** Absolutely glorious example from the end of [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureBattleTendency Part 2]]. [[CrazyPrepared Joseph Joestar]] drops [[BigBad Kars]] into a volcano to try and kill him. Unfortunately for him, it doesn't work, and Kars re-emerges and cuts Joseph's hand off, and it goes tumbling off into oblivion. Half a chapter later, Joseph manages to trigger a massive eruption, and Kars is planning to just fly away from it... until Joseph's ''severed hand'' comes flying out of the volcano again, propelled on venting gas, and hits him right in the throat, distracting him from the process of forming wings. His last words before he's blasted into orbit are directed at Joseph, accusing him of having planned this all along (which isn't as implausible as it sounds, in this series). Joseph immediately takes credit for it, while simultaneously thinking "''As if! That was just total luck! [[{{Troll}} But if it'll piss him off...]]''"

* Subverted in ''Manga/AcchiKocchi'', when Mayoi opens her second umbrella (having lent the first one to Hime), only to have it break and shoot forwards spear-like. The rest of the cast expect her to laugh it off as another of her usual goofy tricks... But Mayoi's reaction is actually a surprised "Eh?". Nobody was expecting it from her, of all people.

* ComicBook/{{Loki}} is dreadfully prone to defeat himself/themself and plans going awry so accidentally fixing or breaking the situation (guy could take the title God of Unintended Consequences) but this so never stopped the jerk from claiming that he meant to do that... highlights include: taking credit for turning [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]] back after the frog incident (actually the Asgardians destroyed the machine powering the spell); and claiming that he [[Comicbook/JourneyIntoMystery meant to die]] in the Siege of Asgard (past Loki's ghost downright denied this, but he isn't the Loki of the now so his opinion doesn't count); or meant to turn [[ComicBook/VoteLoki Nisa]] into an IntrepidReporter by destroying her home.

-->'''Palpatine:''' My true apprentice would frustrate the copies. Eventually, driven by pride and desperation, Cylo would go too far... and then, when he was simply a traitor, we could purge him. Do you understand, Vader?\\

'''Diesel 10''' Grr... I always mean what I do, ya ''rattletraps''!

* In ''Film/SonicTheHedgehog2020'', after Sonic manages to outwit him and escape a carefully planned trap, a stunned [[InsufferableGenius Dr. Robotnik]] admits — probably for the first time in his life — that he genuinely DidntSeeThatComing... then he promptly adds that [[BlatantLies he was expecting to not expect something so it doesn't count]].

* In ''Literature/BrothersOfTheSnake'', one of the Space Marines is tasked with making a shot that's supposed to blow up the explosive charges. He makes it... misses... and promptly claims that the first shot was just checking the distance.

-->'''Martin:''' There's nothing wrong with my eyes! ''[picks up a cream server]'' Now, if you don't mind, I just want to sit here quietly and have a... ''[realises which cup he's picked up]'' have a drink of cream, do you have a problem with that?! Good.

* Foggy from ''Series/LastOfTheSummerWine'' never misses a chance to boast about how he was putting on a facade of cluelessness to imply that the conversation is best held in private, how he acted all cowardly and prevented a situation from escalating into actual violence... generally how he did really badly, but nobody calls him on it because he'll just boast about that next.

'''Stephen:''' That's ''fantastic''. Because he was so... Sort of... Pompously refusing...?\\
'''Rich:''' Well, yeah, he's a big, blustery guy, and he had a [[CigarChomper cigar]]... And he fell right on top of me. And then fell out of the boat. And then got back in and said; 'Right. [[SelectiveObliviousness Where were we]]?' ''[makes 'Whut?' face]'' 'You just fell out of the boat! You're dripping wet!' Cigar just hanging out of his mouth... Guy pretended it never happened! So ''we'' all pretended it didn't happen until two hours later. We're driving back and the guy driving was just... ''(makes zig-zag gesture)'' ..almost wrecked, he was laughing so hard.

* In ''VideoGame/{{SSX}} 3'', Psymon Stark says things like "Obviously intentional!" when he gets a power-up or a money token... and when he almost wipes out.

-->'''Merasmus: '''YOU...ARE...GODS! I... meant to do that! It will go badly for you. You watch.

--> '''Critic:''' A lot of people thought this was part of the joke, that I smashed my head so hard that I got the spelling wrong. Uh... yeah, that was it.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpecialAgentOso'': The title character's CatchPhrase: "It's all part of the plan... more or less."

** In another episode, Stan says "I'm the one who made the decisions that kept this family on track for twenty years. I deserve a little respect!" and storms off... into a pantry. When Francine [[TheExitIsThatWay points this out]], Stan shouts "I'M LOOKING FOR PEACHES!"

** In the episode "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E2TheReturnOfHarmonyPart2 The Return of Harmony, Part 2]]", Applejack [[SlipperySkid slips on some soap]], knocking over the other ponies. She immediately invokes this trope. Somewhat of a parody, as she was [[spoiler:hypnotized by Discord to lie about everything at the time]].
** Done visually by the Wonderbolts flying team in "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E10SecretOfMyExcess Secret of My Excess]]": While fending off a rampaging dragon, they get captured in a water tower. They're freed after the crisis has passed, adopt a heroic pose, then fly off without a word.
** In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E4OneBadApple One Bad Apple]]", Babs Seed tries to impress Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon by knocking a wheel off of the Cutie Mark Crusaders' float. However, it ends up [[DisasterDominoes wrecking the entire float]]; she is clearly shocked, but since the two bullies are impressed by her act, she goes along with it.
** In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS6E7NewbieDash Newbie Dash]]", Rainbow Dash tries to pretend she was just testing the other Wonderbolts by not looking left and right before crossing the runway. None of them are fooled.

* (Pet) Fancy ''Rats'', oddly enough, do the same thing. Every time they do something ridiculous it's either immediately followed by "I totally meant to do that" air, or hasty self-grooming and enforced nonchalance [[LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain attempting to indicate it never happened]].
* Inverted the case of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Corrigan Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan]], who supposedly intended to fly from New York to Long Beach but ended up in Ireland in 1938. Many believed that his supposed "navigational error" was in fact a deliberate turn, since he had previously announced his intention to cross the Atlantic but had been denied permission from aviation authorities because they thought his plane was not suited for transoceanic flight.

* This trope seems to be the underlying philosophy behind the trend of people saying "ILied" instead of "I was mistaken/I was wrong/My bad." Apparently, these people think of themselves as pulling off {{plan}}s and believe that they're tricking you into believing that they just tricked you into believing that they were wrong about some small thing.
* Recent planning and staffwork research has concluded that February-November 1916 Battle of Verdun was not an example. The idea that it ''did'' demonstrate this trope comes from the Entente Cordiale's wartime propaganda about the battle. This propaganda claimed that the Operation's mastermind, General von Falkenhayn, had wanted to take the fortress-sector of Verdun and that when he failed to do so he lied about never having wanted to do that. This was untrue. Falkenhayn had not wanted to actually take Verdun, as trench warfare made attacking very costly. Rather, he had wanted to provoke the French into attacking an area where the Germans could mount the strongest possible defense. Unfortunately, the German field commander at Verdun -- Crown Prince Wilhelm -- abused his operational autonomy by abandoning Falkenhayn's plan and trying to capture Verdun. These attacks failed with heavy losses, rendering the German forces unable to defend against the French attacks which followed.

* This is a general rule for theater performers: Any line-flub or screw-up should be treated as though it was always part of the performance, which can lead to some interesting improvisations on the part of actors and actresses.

** Inverted whole-heartedly by magician Tommy Cooper, who obsessively honed his performances so that it always looked like he was utterly screwing up his own tricks, before triumphantly arriving at the intended result [[CatchPhrase "Just like that."]] In his case, he really ''did'' mean to do that, and any comments he made to that effect were scripted to take advantage of the audience's belief that he was floundering. [[FunnyAneurysmMoment He was so well known for it that when he suffered a fatal heart attack on stage, the audience initially thought it was all just part of the act.]]

* ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'': Riff, about his robot. "That's a feature. It plays dead! ...That's another feature. It's got interchangeable parts! [angrily] That's another feature!"

** In [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Part 3]], Alessi has a de-aged and wounded Polnareff cornered, and attacks him with his Stand. The attack causes Silver Chariot's rapier to snap, and the point accidentally ends up lodged in Alessi's neck, allowing Polnareff to escape. As he flees, Polnareff claims he totally did it on purpose.

* ''WebVideo/SwordArtOnlineAbridged'' may have a contender for the ultimate example of this trope. [[spoiler: The entire first season was the result of Akihiko Kayaba working like a madman for three weeks straight to rush out ''Sword Art Online'', only to discover that he'd created a GameBreakingBug that [[TheMostDangerousVideoGame killed players when their characters died]]. Since he was [[SanitySlippage having a mental breakdown due to stress and sleep deprivation]], the best response he could come up with was to lock ten thousand players in this death game, tell them they had to WinToExit, and "make it look like all part of your master plan instead of an ever-spiraling series of events that you have long since lost control of." Which he thought would lead to better Metacritic scores.]]

* Discussed in ''Literature/MakingMoney''; Moist thinks that Bent, rather than freaking out and locking himself in the vault after making a mistake, should have claimed that he made the mistake on purpose to test the clerks. "Even schoolteachers knew that one!" (Of course, Bent is both scrupulously honest and extremely serious, neither of which are qualities that have ever been ascribed to Moist.)

* Happens occasionally in pro wrestling. Due to the nature of the entire enterprise being a live performance in front of a crowd, action during the matches can be botched. Often when a botch is noticeable, the crowd will chant "You fucked up!" at the offending wrestler, especially if they didn't like him much to begin with. A heel wrestler who falls victim to this will sometimes turn to the crowd and sneer "I MEANT TO DO THAT," just to play up the fact that he is, in fact, a bit of a dick, for the sake of the show.

* Agatha Heterodyne of ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' delivers the line when the coffee machine she's [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome rebuilding]] [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20070608 explodes]]. Subverted in that she doesn't even have to use it at all to save face, the crowd of onlookers/helpers ''cheers'' at the explosion. It's also entirely possible that she really did mean to do that, given her level of spark sanity when inventing and [[IncendiaryExponent the]] [[ExplosiveInstrumentation spark]] [[MadeOfExplodium "design]] [[NonFatalExplosions process"]] in general.

* Let's face it: Pretty much everyone ever has at some point tried to pass off a potentially embarrassing mistake or stumble as perfectly intentional if they thought they might get away with it. Yes, even you. Getting good enough at doing this casually and humorously will make you seem even cooler and more charismatic than if you hadn't made the mistake in the first place.

* Let's face it: Pretty much everyone ever has at some point tried to pass off a potentially embarrassing mistake or stumble as perfectly intentional if they thought they might get away with it. Yes, even you.

* This is how Pete Townshend of Music/TheWho's famous [[RockersSmashGuitars guitar smashing]] started. Townshend accidentally cracked the neck of his guitar on a club's low ceiling, then smashed his guitar out of frustration. The band's manager, Kit Lambert, loved it so much he asked Townshend to do it for every performance.