History Main / JackassGenie

* The Rainy Devil in ''LightNovel/{{Bakemonogatari}}'' makes a deal with Kanbaru Suruga that obviously references ''Monkey's Paw'', to the point where she actually gets her arm replaced with that of a monkey and interprets wishes very liberally and dangerously for everyone involved. [[spoiler:Subverted, as instead of misinterpreting anything the devil simply obeys her hidden desires to the letter, which are far darker than what she'd expected.]]

* {{Defied|Trope}} in ''LightNovel/HowToBuildADungeonBookOfTheDemonKing''. Aur summons Lilu, a succubus, to be his familiar, and prepares for her a ''very'' thorough demonic contract to ensure he'll always have the upper hand while dealing with her.

** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-694 SCP-694]] has a man making a demand to an unseen entity of a "full repeat" of the last 38 minutes after his son is killed in a kidnapping gone wrong. Said entity then proceeds to trap everyone involved in an externally observable time loop, and all the Foundation can do is quarantine the area.

* In ''Series/WhatWeDoInTheShadows'' Nandor's djinn grants most wishes straightforwardly, but when Nandor decides to wish for a bigger penis he spends hours with him creating a contract to prevent it backfiring. The djinn concedes this is responsible, but annoying, and fully intends to twist his wish. Penis enlargement comprises about 90% of his work and seems to be where he exercises most of his creativity, ultimately succeeding in finding a way to ruin it.

* In ''Film/{{Aladdin|2019}}'', Genie demonstrates how he ''can'' be this trope to Aladdin when Aladdin carelessly wishes "Make me a prince," conjuring a random prince out of this air to illustrate the "grey area" of his request before allowing Aladdin to properly word his wish to get the intended result. [[spoiler:In the climax, Aladdin tricks Jafar into wishing to be "the most powerful being in the universe," and Genie uses that ambiguity to make him into a genie bound to a lamp, as opposed to the original where Jafar just wished to be a genie without considering the ramifications.]]

* Used ''benevolently'' in the ending for ''VideoGame/{{Jak 3|Wastelander}}'': [[spoiler:After granting Daxter's wish for a comfortable pair of pants, Daxter's human girlfriend innocently states that she wished she had a pair of pants like that. The Precursors grant her wish... and also turn her into an Ottsel so she can fit into them]]. Anywhere else, this would be a perfect example of this trope [[spoiler:except in this case, the ''Precursors'' are Ottsels, too]]. Earlier in the game [[spoiler:the Precursors (while talking through their floating hologram thing) offer to turn Jak into a Precursor. However, Count Veger shows up with a gun and demands that he be turned into one instead. You can guess what happens. While this may be an example of Literal Genie at first glance, keep in mind that during this scene, ''no one'' (not even the player) knew what the Precursors ''really'' looked like..]].

* Shenron the dragon from ''WebVideo/DragonBallAbridged'' starts off as a BenevolentGenie, even pointing out the LoopholeAbuse that the characters can use to take care of their problems and offering to do that. [[TooDumbToLive They, of course, refuse so they can solve their problems with martial arts battles]].
** In the ''Christmas Tree of Might'' special, Shenron turns into one of these when he finds that not only was he summoned by the main cast ''again'', lamenting that no-one else seems to find the Dragon Balls, but Krillin, who is standing in the middle of a burned down forest with terrified, homeless animals surrounding them, wishes for the best Christmas tree in the world instead of saving the forest. An angry Shenron responds by summoning a group of alien marauders who plant an evil version of a WorldTree that sucks all the Christmas joy out of the world. It is still a tree, at least.
** The revelation from the end of Season 2 that Shenron is, in fact, a servant of [[spoiler:[[HumanoidAbomination Mr. Popo]]]] may explain his more malevolent nature. Upon being summoned by [[spoiler:Mr. Popo]], Shenron's question when he realizes who has summoned him is to ask if it is time for them to "[[ApocalypseHow lay waste to this world]]".
** The new remake of ''Dead Zone Abridged'' has Shenron answer Garlic Jr.'s wish for immortality with "can't wait to hear how you fuck this up". It seems if the wish granter is dumb enough, he doesn't even have to twist it. He mostly seems to grant the wish straight out of suprise that, after years of the Z-warriors using every window of opportunity to revive the dead (and one wish for panties) he ''finally'' has someone ask for the standard immortality wish.
** In the abridgment of ''World's Strongest'', Shenron attempts to be a benevolent genie all over again, but evil {{Jerkass}} Kochin doesn't have the sense to see that and insists on doing a bit of WastefulWishing. Finally, Shenron gets fed up and grants the wish, while also putting a huge hole in the ozone layer just to screw with humanity for trying his patience.
--->'''Kochin:''' Oh wow, that was fast!\\
'''Shenron:''' Yeah, well, I also put a massive hole in your ozone layer. You said it took you 50 years to find me? Good luck figuring out how long that will take to fix!
** Then there's [[TheDragon Slay]] from [[QuirkyMiniBossSquad the Misfit Minions]] in the ''Christmas Tree of Might'' movie. Slay was once a Mall Santa who molested children and took wishes literally in the worst possible way. For example, a kid who asked him for a fire truck got a real one dropped onto his house. And then there's the part where he starts telling Krillin about the young cancer patient who asked him to get rid of the cancer...
--->'''Krillin:''' Oh God, this is going exactly where I think it is, isn't it?\\
'''Slay:''' ...so I blew him up! No more cancer!

* An old ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf''[=/=]''Manga/AhMyGoddess'' crossover fanfiction ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/787052/1/Only_Half_A_Wish Only Half A Wish]]'' is basically Heaven clearing out a bunch of old faulty wishes by granting them to a group of less than sane teenagers. In addition to the traditional Monkey's Paw, there's a wish with a credit limit, one that is effectively the inverse of this trope (giving the person exactly what they really want without following the wording ''at all''), one that literally grants half of what the wisher asks for, and more.
* A ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' story, ''[[https://web.archive.org/web/20091113195353/http://www.nabiki.com/deddy/fanfiction/2time01.txt Second Time]] [[https://web.archive.org/web/20091113195358/http://www.nabiki.com/deddy/fanfiction/2time02.txt Around]]'', uses this to set up its PeggySue plot. Ranma manages to use the Wish Granting Sword from canon to undo his [[GenderBender curse]], and gets sent back to right before he got it...just in time to be knocked into the spring again. He probably spends all of five seconds cured.

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

*** That particular scene is also a very interesting CallBack: The original ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'' also had a scene of the genie saving his master from drowning at the cost of a wish, at a time when said master was incapable of wishing. The main differences are that Genie saved an unconscious Aladdin from an assassination attempt out of kindness[[note]]And he only counted it as a wish because he'd already declared "No more freebies" after Al tricked him into getting him out of the Cave of Wonders without expending a wish[[/note]], while Jafar deliberately put Abis Mal in the ocean and then wasted the wish so he could further manipulate Abis into following his agenda.

** When reading Prince Naveen's fortune, he "predicts" that Naveen wishes for "the green" and to be able to "hop from place to place." Naveen never actually says anything like this, nor does he even acknowledge this as an accurate "prediction," yet Facilier transforms him into a frog anyways. Naveen agreed to Facilier's deal when he shook his hand, tacitly giving him permission to make the wishes described come true. Although to be fair to Naveen, he had no idea that he was agreeing to anything. Facilier carefully phrased it as such.

* The eponymous genies from the ''Film/{{Wishmaster}}'' series deliberately interpret any wish they're given in the most negative manner possible--typically involving a CruelAndUnusualDeath--then take the victim's soul to Hell for further torture. For instance, some poor guy is rendered blind simply for answering a question in the negative ("You don't want to see this, do you?") Depending on how vague the wish is, the Djinn can interpret it any way he wants. Near the end of the second film, the casino manager wishes "this nightmare would just be over" and the Djinn decides that means "kill everyone". However, he still has to obey the LiteralGenie conventions because he can't just ignore a wish because he doesn't like it. When a security guard wishes for him to go away, he's forced to do just that. When he then threatens the guard as he walks away, the guard responds with "The only way you're coming through this door is through me. And that is something I'd love to see." The results [[LiterallyShatteredLives are predictable]].
* The Devil in the remake of ''Film/Bedazzled2000'', who twists all of Elliot's wishes. He wishes to be rich and married to his crush and the Devil makes him a Colombian druglord despised by his wife. He wishes to be emotionally sensitive, because chicks dig sensitive guys, so now he can't help but burst into tears if he even glances at a sunset. He wishes to be a great basketball player with a humongous body, and the Devil also makes him stupid and gives him a small penis for no reason at all except to make him waste another wish. He then explicitly asks to be erudite and witty, AND for a big penis, so the Devil makes him gay. He wishes to be President of the United States, so the Devil turns him into Abraham Lincoln on the night he's assassinated. She also counts a demo wish for a Big Mac and fries he made before he'd even signed the contract. At least, in that case, he got what he wanted (even if he had to pay for it).
* The original ''Film/Bedazzled1967'' does this too. The main character wishes to be a famous rock star, but he almost immediately loses his fans to a new, more popular singer who is, of course, the Devil. His last wish is to be living in peace with the object of his affection far away from the busy city. So the Devil turns them into lesbian nuns.
* Near the end of ''Film/Leprechaun2'' the Leprechaun is trapped in a wrought iron safe by Morty (the leprechaun, being a fae type, is harmed by cold iron), who forces the Leprechaun into granting him three wishes. The Leprechaun grants Morty's wish for his gold by materializing it into his stomach. After the Leprechaun makes Morty waste his second wish by wishing him free of the safe, the Leprechaun grants the third wish (getting the gold out) by ripping Morty open. When Morty whispers "Help me" afterward, the Leprechaun leaves him for dead since he's out of wishes. Suffice it to say, this is the titular Leprechaun's MO in ALL of the films.
** For added points, the Leprechaun was legally obligated to ask Morty every time if he is certain that this is his wish. That's right: not only was Morty yelled at the entire time to stop, but the villain himself had to ask him every time to confirm the screw up order. The Leprechaun even says outright that this is what Morty gets for being so greedy.

* In ''Film/{{Aladdin 2019}}'', Genie demonstrates how he ''can'' be this trope to Aladdin when Aladdin carelessly wishes "Make me a prince," conjuring a random prince out of this air to illustrate the "grey area" of his request before allowing Aladdin to properly word his wish to get the intended result. [[spoiler:In the climax, Aladdin tricks Jafar into wishing to be "the most powerful being in the universe," and Genie uses that ambiguity to make him into a genie bound to a lamp, as opposed to the original where Jafar just wished to be a genie without considering the ramifications.]]

* [[EldritchLocation The Room]] in ''Film/{{Stalker}}'' is an interesting twist on this trope. It does not twist wishes to screw you over; quite the contrary, it grants you your greatest desire, no catch. But you don't get to ''ask'' for what you want, the process is automatic, and what you ''think'' you want may not be what you actually get. Case in point, the protagonist's mentor went into the Room to wish his dead brother back to life, [[spoiler:and was given a huge sum of cash because deep down he wanted to be rich more than he wanted his brother back, subsequently [[DrivenToSuicide killed himself]] out of self-loathing.]] Put simply, whether the Room is a Jackass Genie depends on whether you know what you truly want and whether you really ''want'' to know.
* ''Film/WonderWoman1984'' [[PlayingWithATrope plays with this.]] The Dreamstone grants its victims’ wishes literally, but the ''cost'' of the wishes is so extreme that it usually isn’t worth it. For example, Barbara Minerva wishes to be more like Diana, so she becomes beautiful, confident and gets Diana’s powers to boot. [[spoiler: However, the Dreamstone takes her morality in exchange, eventually resulting in her turning into [[Characters/WonderWomanCheetah Cheetah]].]] Wonder Woman’s wish is for [[spoiler: Steve Trevor to come back to life, but she only gets him back via possessing another man’s body, ''and'' she loses her powers in the deal. This is because the Stone was actually created by the Duke of Deception (reimagined in this universe to be the god of lies) specifically as ShmuckBait to doom humanity.]]
** Max Lord tries to exploit a loophole in the deal by wishing to ''become'' the Dreamstone, [[WishingForMoreWishes thus deciding for himself what toll he will extract from unfortunate wishers]]. Surprisingly, the Dreamstone doesn’t turn him into an inanimate rock, [[spoiler: probably because it knows it will be able to inflict more chaos on the world by letting Lord get what he wants. [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes Max Lord eventually renounces his wish when he realizes it will doom his son to death in nuclear war.]]]]

* In ''Literature/TheMonkeysPaw'', the first wish is for two hundred pounds. Just to show how old this trope is, the characters in this story were aware of it and more worried one of them was going to be killed by the money falling from the sky in change and beaning them on the head. However, it is instead received via the eldest son dying in a horrible accident at work and the corporation giving them a settlement out of pity (because this story was written in an age where lawsuits for this kind of thing were unheard of). It gets worse: The mother is so distraught she forces her husband to wish the son alive again -- but she didn't specify what shape she wanted him back in. It turns out his fatal accident had horribly mutilated him, and they hear a knock on the door. We never do find out just what shape the son is in, because when the mother goes to answer the door, the father rushes back in order to make his final wish, which is presumably to wish the son dead and back in his grave, because when the mother opens the door, no one is there. Though some versions have him as a literal zombie, growling and scratching at the door.

* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' book ''Literature/{{Eric}}'' the title character attempts to summon a demon to make a DealWithTheDevil for three wishes. Demons, needless to say, give people "exactly what they asked for and exactly what they didn't want", although Eric doesn't really make it that difficult.
** For instance, the eponymous Eric wishes to live forever. He is promptly transported to the beginning of the universe since that's when forever ''starts''. Enjoy the next couple billion years...
** He also wishes for the most beautiful woman and to rule the world. He gets a case of ValuesDissonance and a country where people kill their rulers.

* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': Long ago the creator of the Black Court of Vampires, Vlad Tepesh, aka "Dracula", came to Mab with a request to be together forever with his human lover whom he did not want to turn into an undead monstrosity. Mab granted this wish by encasing them both in ice and using the resulting sculptures as decoration for her ice garden.

* The ''Literature/GhostsOfFearStreet'' book ''Three Evil Wishes'' has Gene. He grants wishes poorly due to either incompentence or hidden malice, and purposely neglects to inform his summoners that one of them will have to take his place in the bottle once he grants all three wishes.

** 1) Main character Samantha Byrd wishes to be 'the strongest player on her basketball team'. The witch doesn't make her stronger, but everyone else weaker, to the point where the star players come down with severe illnesses. This leads to a scene where said star player (and bully) Judith is accusing Samantha of being a witch herself...
** 2) Samantha angrily wishes ''JUDITH'' would disappear. The witch makes ''EVERYONE IN THE WORLD'' disappear as well. Because...the wish is hard to aim?
** 3) Samantha wishes everyone back and wishes that Judith 'thought she was the greatest'. This, as you might have guessed, makes Judith obsessed with Samantha and how 'perfect' she is to the point of insanity, forcing Samantha to flee and running into the witch again after her three wishes had been used up.
** 4) Given one last wish, Samantha wishes 'she had never met the witch....that Judith had met the witch instead'. Reality returns to what it previously was, but then Judith (no longer aware she was there because she was obsessively chasing Samantha) says "Why don't you fly away, Byrd?" for the thirteenth time in the book, and Samantha is turned into a bird. JUST 'CAUSE.

* A short story "Not In a Hurry" by Creator/SergeyLukyanenko offers an interesting subversion. A young occultist summons a demon and strikes a Faustian deal with him: any number of wishes in exchange for the guy's soul after his death. As a default clause of the contract, the guy demands to be made immortal and invincible to any harm except for the effects of his wishes. Demon agrees and makes pretty clear that he will act as a Jackass Genie to his worst. Subversion ensues when the guy [[spoiler: never makes any wishes at all, content with his immortality]].

* A rare heroic example: the djinn in the ''Literature/RoseOfTheProphet'' trilogy generally don't do this because their masters have complete power over them as long as they hold their mortal dwelling place (lamp, basket, incense burner, etc.) and they're bound to use their magic to serve their masters completely rather than only granting a limited number of wishes. However when the lamp and basket of Sond and Pukah fall into the hands of the miserable JerkAss fisherman Meelusk, the two of them play him like a fiddle, throwing him into his fishing boat and hijacking it across the waters to rescue the heroes from the dread island fortress of the Paladins of Zhakrin, claiming they're fulfilling his unspoken wish to embrace heroism in battle against the Paladins. When he later attempts to assert his ownership of them and they're forced to admit they do actually have to obey him [[ExactWords as long as he holds their dwellings]], they grant his wishes- they give him "fine clothes" by swathing him in silks so thick he can't even move, "fine jewels" by weighing him down with heavy gold ornaments that bring him to his knees, then finally surrounding him with gorgeous adoring women that he distractedly starts groping. When Pukah, pretending to get carried away, shouts "A new lamp and a new basket for my master!" the distracted Meelusk absently shouts "Yes, yes!", dropping their dwellings and letting the hero Khardan pick them up again. Sond and Pukah promptly make everything vanish, "regretfully" tell him that he freely gave up ownership of them, then toss him back in his boat and shove him back out to sea to take his chances with the ghuls.

* In ''Literature/WhoCensoredRogerRabbit'', [[spoiler:Roger's tea kettle turns out to house a genie who got so fed up with granting people's wishes that he decided to just straight-up kill anyone who summoned him. Roger escaped being killed because he didn't know of the genie's existence or that the words to a song he liked to sing were indirectly summoning it, but the genie still twisted his wishes so that his wish to become a famous movie star came with the catch of him being stuck in a permanent sidekick role to Baby Herman and his wish for Jessica to love him came with a one-year limit. And when Roger finally learns about the genie? He becomes very dead]].

-->'''Orion''': "Why would you ask for a spell (that summons dozens of [[EvilIsBurningHot malevolent and hard to extinguish fire elementals]] such as the one trying to kill them)!"\\
'''El''': "What I asked for what a spell to light my room, you twat, [[ExactWords that]] is what I ''[[NoKillLikeOverkill got]]''."

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer's'' vengeance demons. Sometimes the wisher gets taken out (or is at risk of being taken out) by the wish at the same time as the subject of their vengeance because the vengeance demon behind the wish didn't think about the potential consequences (or didn't think they'd be important). This can, occasionally, backfire on the demon in question... for instance, in one Season Six episode, Halfrek curses everyone at the Summers house to stay in the house forever, and then makes the mistake of dropping by the house to gloat, with the result that she gets stuck in her own curse and has to reverse it. Another example is an unnamed vengeance demon's head exploding after a wisher asked for the heads of every other female in town to explode. Anya managed to use her vengeance demon powers to spark the Russian Revolution.
** This ends up biting D'Hoffryn, the lord of the vengeance demons, in the ass during the Season 10 comics. [[spoiler:When Buffy and the Scoobies confront him and are fully prepared to kill him, he tries to bargain with them, offering them each one wish if they let him live. Buffy turns him down, knowing there will ''always'' be a catch, and chops his head off.]]

-->'''Leo:''' There's always a catch...Say a guy wishes for a new car. The next day, his father will die and he'll ''inherit'' a car.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'':

--->'''Genie''': No matter what you wish for, you must be prepared for the consequences.

** ''Tooth And Consequences'' had a dentist wish for his crush to love him back and for his patients to respect and look forward to their appointments. A tooth fairy grants it, but his crush's love is suffocating and his patients now won't leave him alone. He ends up hopping a freight train to get away, where he meets other dentists having gone through the same thing. Apparently the tooth fairy is running a con because he wants more people to lose their teeth.

* In ''Series/TheWitcher2019'' the genie they encounter turns out to be pretty hard to handle, made worse because you don't need to say what you want ''out loud'' for it to "grant your wish". Its master ends up [[spoiler: almost killing his friend through strangulation by silently wishing he'd shut up]]. Geralt notes that a freed genie isn't dangerous, and this malevolence is a result of their imprisonment.

** In the end, Jenn qualifies as more of a JerkassWoobie Genie, since she didn't ask for her situation and she's [[WhoWantsToLiveForever really, really sick of it]]. Mulder himself recognizes this and [[spoiler:frees her with his final wish, turning her into a normal woman with a regular lifespan]].

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DY3Xik8-vc As You Wish]] by Persuader.

[[folder:Mythology & Religion]]

* Most wish-granting genies in the Arabian tales are {{Benevolent Genie}}s, but then, they didn't have to grant wishes, either. Some non-wish-granting genies would instead offer such options as "You may choose how you would like to die," or "Should I [[BalefulPolymorph change you into a dog, an ass, or an ape]]?" Thus taking Jackass Genie to a whole new (old?) level. The modern mythos of the genie is the result of the mythological equivalent of the telephone game. Originally, the point of the wish-granting genie wasn't that it granted wishes; it was supposed to impress upon you how powerful some sorcerer or other was (since djinn were actually very powerful spirits that roamed about doing more-or-less than whatever they damn well pleased) that he managed to trap a genie at all. Another version of the mythos is that some trapped Djinn ''were'' originally {{Benevolent Genie}}s, but didn't particularly enjoy being imprisoned and forced into servitude by a powerful sorcerer, making their resentment and transformation into a Jackass Genie end up being [[NiceJobBreakingItHero rather justified]].

* [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Greek Mythology]]:

** Aphrodite in UsefulNotes/TheTrojanWar. She promises Paris that the most beautiful woman in the world will fall in love with him and keeps her word but neglects to mention that the most beautiful woman in the world is already married -- to a powerful king who won't be too happy and has all the kings of Greece bound by oath to defend their marriage with everything they have, and actually getting with her would mean breaking SacredHospitality.

[[folder:Print Media]]
* ''Magazine/{{Dragon}} Magazine'':
** A ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'' Blood War comic featured a cambion spy, whose girlfriend had cheated on him with a balor, but has managed to steal baatazu battleplans to assault their fortress. He then gives them to an aasimon in exchange for three wishes: "I want the tannar'ri to respect me as a ''hero'', I want to show I'm ''better'' than that sodding balor. I want Alamanda to respect me. To love only ''me''." [[spoiler: The aasimon ''corrects'' the battle plans, returns them to the baatezu, and then tells the cambion that time flows differently here, and the assault has already begun. When he returns he finds that he's a hero for stealing the plans, even though it didn't do any good. He's better than the balor because he's still alive. And Alamanda says she loves him ... with her final breath.]]
** At one point, ''Dragon Magazine'' dedicated an article to fleshing out a list of different types of wishes. Besides Benevolent and Malevolent, there were also Half wishes (Deliver half the wish and cut it in half in a creative way), Misinterpretation wishes (guaranteed to always hear at least one word wrong in some way), and several more options for making the act of wishing that much more uncertain.
--->'''Genie:''' Let me get this straight. You want me to ''raze'' all your ability scores...?

* ''Series/FraggleRock'' has an episode called "[[Recap/FraggleRockS3E8WembleyAndTheMeanGenie Wembley and the Mean Genie]]." Though he's something of a subversion in that he's [[TheBully a bullying jerk all on his own]], and it's Wembley using the wishes (which he apparently can't twist) that fixes his damage.

*** Do note that when the player actually memorized and cast the spell, they are subject to the aging and experience penalties the spell usually has for casting. It's usually when a wish is gained through some other method that the jackassery happens. And the descriptions of the spells cautioned against greed, stating that it usually ends in disaster for the wisher (the DM becoming a Jackass Genie).
** It's important to note that the above-mentioned "free-form" version of the ''wish'' spell came from the old ''[=AD&D=] 2nd Edition'' rules. In D&D 3.0 and 3.5, "Wish" and "Miracle" spells have a set of specific game-mechanical effects that they're explicitly allowed to accomplish with no penalty. Additionally, the spell description also says that the DM should let wishes of a similar power level [[BenevolentGenie work the way the player wants them to]] -- and because ''wish'' is, canonically, ''the'' most powerful spell a wizard can cast[[note]] At least, it's the most powerful spell a Level 20 wizard can cast.[[/note]], it ought to be capable of doing some pretty impressive things. It's only if the players go overboard that the DM is supposed to stop it, either by playing Jackass Genie with their phrasing or, if that isn't possible, by simply having the power of the spell be over-stretched and fail to get the job done. (The 3.0 Player's Guide has an example of the latter: a wizard wishing that everyone in the land considers him their rightful king ends up with everybody simply realizing that the wizard tried and failed to magically control their minds.)

** Fifth Edition has brought back ''Wish'', but with the major caveat that a caster using it to do something other than duplicating a spell has a 33 percent chance of being unable to cast it ever again. This applies even if the spell is cast through a magic item.

*** The fifth edition Monster Manual includes a story about a halfling who met a genie (a Marid to be precise, genies of water with a canonical ChaoticNeutral alignment and whose egos make them think of mortals as amusing playthings) and wished for immortality. The genie turned him into a fish, which flopped around for a few minutes before suffocating. The in-universe narrator notes the story is a thousand-year old tale of caution, so [[ExactWords in a way, the halfling got his wish.]]
** The effects of a Jackass Genie DM are arguably removed with the Wish-equivalent psionic powers "Bend Reality" and "Reality Revision". They function the same as Limited and Unlimited Wish, respectively, but since Psionics is ''thought'', the power would affect the way the manifester ''thinks''. Intention over interpretation through the power of thought, no messy words to get in the way. However, on that note, if you try to stretch these powers too far, it simply flat-out fails, and just wasted a bunch of psychic power and time to no effect. And also, you even must explain it your wish to your GM, and he can act as the Jackass Genie. "Oh, so you wanted to alter the reality so you could be the greatest Psion? Well, now you're sixty feet tall. You SAID me that was your wish, player". Rule Zero, my friends!
** On a related note, the Clerical version, "Miracle" is adjudicated by the caster's god (despite functioning via the spellcasting game mechanics, a cleric doesn't actually ''cast'' a miracle, they ''request'' one) -- if they ask for too much, or something not following the god's philosophy, god says "no", and you waste time and a spell. And in the later case, the GM could reasonably have the god punishing the cleric for their temerity.

--->''As you can see I soon realized that Psycho Dave ran a game in roughly the same way that Creator/WarwickDavis in the film ''Film/{{Leprechaun}}'' granted wishes. Everything you said your character did was scrutinized for some way to screw you over and the dice ruled all. He was the only guy I know who used a random monster encounter chart for ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu''. You haven't lived until you've had a character {{go mad|FromTheRevelation}} because he saw a [[EldritchAbomination nightgaunt]] sitting in a restroom stall reading a copy of the [[ArtifactOfDoom Necronomicon]].''
** Leprechauns could act like this, but with a twist. If a leprechaun is captured by a mortal or his pot of gold is stolen, he can offer the mortal three wishes in exchange for his or the pot of gold's release (but is only capable of granting what is permitted by the Limited Wish spell). If the mortal agrees, the leprechaun will indeed grant the wishes, doing so in a way that will tempt the mortal into wanting more. After doing so, he'll offer the mortal a ''fourth'' wish as a bonus. If the mortal falls for this and makes a fourth wish, a type of Leprechaun Law will allow the leprechaun to undo the effects of the three wishes and then teleport the wisher and his companions hundreds of miles away; they'll never be able to find that particular leprechaun again.

** The DealWithTheDevil usually goes this way too, with the ''D&D'' devils being malicious but always keeping their side of the bargain. And you'll have problems with that, as they have literal "Lawyers out of Hell."

** Glabrezu demons specialize in doing this. Their main schtick is tempting and corrupting mortals by offering them whatever they wish, and then using their magic to give it to them -- and, since glabrezus are just as evil and sadistic as any other demon, deliberately twisting said wish to cause as much harm and grief as possible. For instance, a smith wishing for fame and recognition might end up with a wealthy patron -- who happens to be a cruel warmonger who uses the smith’s weapons to spread death and misery. Or someone grieving over the death of a loved one might see them brought back from the dead -- as a vampire. And so on.
* One TabletopGame/{{GURPS}} supplement offers a perk that causes any wish the character makes to err in his favor automatically specifically to avoid players writing out multipage wishes to avoid getting screwed over. Needless to say, it's a tad over-powered for what should be a relatively minor ability.

* ''TabletopGame/LegendOfTheFiveRings'' suggests this as a possible way that the [[CosmicHorror Nothing]] might grant "favors." One of the source books includes an example of a Shiba bodyguard who was being blackmailed by the [[DesignatedVillain Scorpion Clan]] and made a deal with an agent of the Nothing to get rid of the Blackmail. The agent did so--by telling everyone the Shiba's secret, eliminating the hold that the Scorpion had on him but ruining his life in the process.

-->'''Djerk''': Now, what is your first wish?\\
'''Man''': Hmmm... gimme a sec.\\
'''Djerk''': [[ExactWords Done!]]\\
'''Man''': Hey! That wasn't a wish! You're a dick!\\
'''Djerk''': Done! (''becomes phallic in shape'') And your final wish, my boy?\\
'''Man''': Awww, forget it! You're just trying to piss me off!\\
'''Djerk''': Done!!! (''the phallic genie urinates on the man, the force of the stream knocking him off the flight of stairs leading to the lamp'')

** In "Torg Potter and the Chamberpot of Secretions", the Djinn of the Chamberpot interprets ''every single wish'' someone makes as asking to be turned into a chocolate statue. The first two times it happens it's ''sort of'' a case of being a Literal Genie ("Could you make me some chocolate?" and "Make me irresistible to women"), but the third time, no one even really makes a wish, they just shout "Oh good bloody hell!" The genie claims this is Viking for "Turn me into chocolate." When it's pointed out that the Vikings didn't ''have'' chocolate, he retorts, "But if they ''did'' they would have called it 'bloodyhell'."\\\
That said, this genie's special thing is that he'll grant you an actual proper wish on the second wish if you manage to get past the first one. The [[ThreeWishes third wish]] is "witheld for tax purposes."\\\
Incidentally, the reason this all is in the story is to parody the implausibility of how in [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets the original]], a series of coincidences led to no-one ever being killed by [[spoiler: the basilisk, even though just looking into its eyes was lethal. Time after time, the witness would happen to only see it in a mirror or similar, so rather than being killed outright, they would become paralysed instead, which could be safely reversed.]]

** And later, there are the demons Zefolas and Fezeel, who trick mortals to sell their souls for wishes. The first wish is always free, but the second will cost you... '''''YOUR SOUL'''''. You can imagine what the wishes they grant are like, especially the first wishes when they want you to make a second. They even like to grant wishes and make deals in their own realm, where they are almost omnipotent and can ignore any wish they like [[{{Wishplosion}} that might harm them]], [[JustToyingWithThem simply for sport]]. This allows them to take being Jackass Genies to the extreme since they don't even have to limit themselves to twisting wishes asked for if it's not convenient. The only way to beat them turns out to be to ask for wishes that they don't realize can be used against them, [[spoiler: such as wishing for the blood of the innocent to drip from the walls while carrying a magic sword that can kill literally anything after feeding on innocent blood]].

** There are plenty of [[ComedicSociopathy comically sociopathic]] characters. The Djinn is no exception, outright telling the guy who rubbed his lamp that he'll grant one wish, but if he doesn't wish to give the Djinn a blowjob, the Djinn will cut off his legs. The next panel shows his choice... and the consequences. [[spoiler: All hail King Simon the Legless!]]

* In ''WebComic/ThePrincessPlanet'', [[http://www.theprincessplanet.com/?p=210 this genie]] is definitely the jerkass type (she's also on the Literal Genie page, mind). Fortunately, Christi is very smart.

* This trope is the basis of the "Corrupted Wish Game", a fairly common forum game of unknown origin that can be found on many different online message boards, wherein users take turns making wishes that are then granted and twisted into something bad. And of course, even the Administrivia/TVTropesForum has its own long-running game thread if you're curious; it's called "[[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=8izhward9hxaz5cihbmrw5q1&page=1 Corrupt-a-wish.]]"
** The [[{{Website/Reddit}} subreddit]] [[https://www.reddit.com/r/TheMonkeysPaw/ r/TheMonkeysPaw]] uses a similar concept, and is obviously named after ''Literature/TheMonkeysPaw'' story.

* The comedy sketch [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwMcLk9wAL4 ''My Command'']] plays this straight. [[spoiler:Subverted when the master at the end begins a wish with 700 pages of terms and conditions.]]
* You'd be hard-pressed to find a forum without a thread making a game out of misinterpreting wishes. Taken [[ExaggeratedTrope Up to Eleven]] by The Open Source Wish Project, a whole forum devoted to coming up with wishes so carefully phrased that not even this genie could find a loophole.
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX1xdnHh-pI This fake ad]] is for a law office that specializes in genie cases.
%%* [[http://www.cracked.com/craptions/archive/april-2009/1188 This.]]
%%** [[http://www.cracked.com/photoshop_61_if-every-wish-backfired-horribly And, on the same site, this.]]
* [[https://politics.theonion.com/genie-grants-scalia-strict-constructionist-interpretati-1819567988 This article]] from Website/TheOnion, in which Justice Scalia meets a genie who grants him a strict constructionist interpretation of his wish for "a hundred billion bucks."

* ''WebVideo/SMBCTheater'' features [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0y5dHmVRIc&NR=1 an episode of this]]; [[spoiler:subverted when the "victims" turn out to be heartless jerks who don't care]].

* "[[http://5secondfilms.com/watch/shazaam-the-lazy-genie Shazaam: The Lazy Genie]]" from ''WebVideo/FiveSecondFilms'' isn't as destructive as some of the others on this page, but he does waste his "master's" wishes in trivial and embarrassing ways.

*** One example [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] the trope, proving that EvenEvilHasStandards. Specifically, the Foundation asked for SCP-738 to permanently kill SCP-682, a [[ReptilesAreAbhorrent reptillian abomination]] fueled by ThePowerOfHate. Upon hearing this request, 738 refused to grant it--not because it lacked the power to do so, but because the Foundation ''couldn't afford what it would cost them.''

** [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-4035 SCP-4035]] is an ordinary-looking table lamp. When a bulb is inserted, 4035-1, looking like a down-on-his-luck salesman, manifests and offers to sell an undefined product. ''The very next statement'' the bulb-inserter makes, regardless of context or wording, is considered to be the desired wish. And unless the wish is very, very precise (like the "I want a sandwich" one), it will be at best BlessedWithSuck, and at worst very, very lethal. "Make me rich" did make the subject rich -with a severe overdose of Vitamin C.
* In "Stampylonghead"'s 2014 Halloween special, he tells the story of an evil pig who transforms into a zombie pigman by night called Mr Porkchop. He was originally a human pig shepherd who was trying to raise the largest pig in order to win a competition. A witch offers to grant his wish for a pig larger than every other in exchange for all his other pigs. When he agrees, she just turns him into a Pigman and takes all his pigs.
* Cameo/Judgement during the Judgement miniarc in ''WebVideo/VaguelyRecallingJoJo''. He grants Polnareff's wealth wish but buries him in the pile of gold bars. He treats the revive Sherry and Avdol wish as separate wishes, and he accidentally mishears the name Sherry as Cherry. When Cameo's stand user tries to get him to attack Polnareff and Avdol, Cameo refuses because Polnareff did not interfere with the wish-granting.
* Defied in this comic titled ''Three Wishes'', [[http://www.semperbufo.com/?wid=100a48 here]]. Hey, at least he tried.
* Subverted in the ''Podcast/ThrillingAdventureHour'', when a djinni tries to pull this on Frank and Sadie Doyle by giving them "more liquor than they could possibly drink," TheAlcoholic mediums take it as a challenge.
* In ''Webcomic/OurLittleAdventure'', the cleric Maxo briefly falls into a small subdimension of Hell, and encounters a very powerful demon who offers to grant him a Wish at whatever future point he wants it. Maxo accepts the offer, thinking it might come in handy at some point. Much later, Maxo wants to resurrect one of his friends, and the demon uses that to sneak out of his prison dimension in the guise of that resurrected friend. What pushes it over into this trope is that not only was that ''not'' what Maxo wanted, but Maxo did not intend to use the Wish, and didn't even say "I wish Candesco were brought back to life".
* The third death scene judge turns out to be one in ''Fanfic/FarceOfTheThreeKingdoms.'' Zhuge Ke angrily refuses to have [[DroppedABridgeOnHim a random anticlimactic death]] - he wants to finish his war, get a more dramatic death scene, and have some memorable last words. Easily accomplished:he loses the war, gets an absurdly long-drawn and over-the-top death scene, and his last words are [[spoiler: ''Why am I in a frog’s body? Why am I in a maid outfit?"]] Oh, and he has to go through the rest of the chapter with an [[AnnoyingArrows arrow sticking out of his head.]]
* ''WebVideo/OutsideXbox'' has a D&D campaign in which one of their party gains a hammer with the ability to summon a skeleton army that will do the bidding of the wielder, and the skeletons follow the trope. They are set to rebuild a town hall, only for the skeletons to destroy an orphanage to get the material for the project. When they ask the skeletons to rebuild the orphanage that can hold "all of the orphans", the skeletons use the orphans as the mortar for the building construction.
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pg8F86xWKiA&feature=emb_title This]] ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' video features a jackass Heavy granting wishes to his companions. The Engineer, who is impotent, wishes for everyone to see his penis, so Heavy gives him [[GagPenis one large enough to be seen from outside the castle they are in]]. The Engineer is actually pretty happy about it.
* Played for BlackComedy in WebVideo/DoorMonster's aptly-titled "I Have Nightmares About Genies": The genie (played by Kyle) demands that JP choose whether he will burn down JP's house or severely flood it, describing in detail how either option will likely end in JP's slow death. [[spoiler:When he hesitates, the genie adds: "Pick one, [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill or I'll do both.]]"]] The video ends before we can see his decision.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'' episode "The First Adventure!", Scrooge and F.O.W.L. are simultaneously racing to find the Papyrus of Binding, a mystic paper which grants the request of anything written on it. However, it works just like a monkey's paw in that it's a malicious LiteralGenie that will screw you over unless you're ''very'' specific. The Papyrus was last taken by the pirate Captain Yellowbeak, but he only suffered while using it. He wished to escape from the pursuing Spanish Armada and the Papyrus transported their ship to the peak of a mountain, he wished for water, and his crew drowned on dry land. He wished to be free of the Papyrus's curse and he dropped dead on the spot. [[spoiler:This comes back in the GrandFinale, "The Last Adventure!" when Bradford, the true mastermind and leader of F.O.W.L. RulesLawyer'd the living hell out of this to stop Scrooge from adventuring only to have the triplets discover a loophole.]]

-->'''Timmy''': [[DumbassHasAPoint Well, YOUR wishes always tend to bite me in the butt, and his are rule-free!]]

** Within a time period of "fifteen legal minutes", the lawyer words a wish in a way that'll undo the harms caused by the second and the third wishes and release Cosmo and Wanda but Norm still finds two ways to screw Timmy: when Timmy's Dad is taken back home from jail, his cellmate goes with him; and Trixie stops wanting to kiss everyone named "Timmy Turner" right when she's about to kiss him.
** When Crocker gets a hold of Norm, he wishes for a series of absurdly impractical deathtraps for Timmy, prompting Norm to ''act'' somewhat benevolent but only to suggest that Crocker is not evil ''enough'' and that "Mars is really nice this time of year." When Timmy defeats Crocker and asks Norm to send him to Mars, he's so delighted to have his suggestion taken that he provides Timmy with a spacesuit to enjoy seeing Crocker act out the ending of the original ''Film/{{Total Recall|1990}}''. In a way though, Norm still acts this trope, ''because'' the wish involves someone getting hurt, which makes it easy for him. In general, it seems that the wishes Norm grants are jerkass in nature; even if the user is on the same page as him, he just can’t help it if his wishes happen to backfire.

* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'':

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' has fun with this trope in an episode called "The Mirror." Puck -- the trickster fairy from ''Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream'' -- is captured by Demona and forced to do her bidding. Puck, either out of a sense of mischief, annoyance with being enslaved, or a sincere desire to avoid harming others -- possibly all three -- deliberately misconstrues Demona's wishes, as follows...
-->'''Demona:''' If you can't get rid of ''all'' the humans, then at least rid me of that Human! ''Elisa Maza!''\\

* In the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short ''WesternAnimation/DuckAmuck'', the mystery animator [[spoiler:WesternAnimation/BugsBunny]] sometimes acts as this to WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck, removing the sound effects or backgrounds, knowing that an infuriated Daffy will blurt out a demand for "color!" or "sound!" and invite his own doom as he gets ''exactly'' what he demanded. Two years later in ''WesternAnimation/RabbitRampage'', WesternAnimation/BugsBunny would go through the same ordeal at the hands of [[spoiler:WesternAnimation/ElmerFudd]], including moments like these (such as Bugs asking for a tail and ending up with a horse's tail, then being turned into a horse when he points it out).

* The Nightwatcher from ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'' is a borderline example. She will grant anyone who finds her a wish--but at the same time exact a curse. A character tells his friend that he'll [[LiteralGenie word the wish to get around loopholes]], but his friend says that's not how it works. You ask for the boon, and the Nighwatcher gives you a curse ''she'' feels is equivalent, which might be related to the wish, but more often is not. One person wished for a bunch of cloth, and was cursed to the world upside down for the rest of his life. In addition, she's not even obliged to give you what you asked for, though she does usually try. For example Lift asked to be TheAgeless, but instead was left with a curious condition allowing her to interact with normally-intangible creatures and CastFromCalories (it's not clear if this was the boon or the curse or both or whether it was ''supposed'' to fulfil her request), while Dalinar [[spoiler: asked to be forgiven, which resulted in him not receiving anything from a confused Nightwatcher and a different entity that understood humans better stepping in to grant him a boon and curse of her own devising]].

* Might and Magic 5 has several Jackass Genies. While some will offer the player a choice between money, gems and experience, three fit this trope. The classic version is: "So, more greedy mortals seeking a free wish. I'll give you one. Choose from one of the following wishes:

- I wish to die.
- I wish for my friends to die.

Option 2 kills the character who rubbed the lamp (Die, selfish scum!).
Option 3 results in "Hmmm. Granting that one would create a paradox. I had better just kill you all."

Option 3 results in "Hmmm. Granting that one would create a paradox. I had better just kill you all.

* [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Greek Mythology]]: Aphrodite in UsefulNotes/TheTrojanWar. She promises Paris that the most beautiful woman in the world will fall in love with him and keeps her word but neglects to mention that the most beautiful woman in the world is already married -- to a powerful king who won't be too happy and has all the kings of Greece bound by oath to defend their marriage with everything they have, and actually getting with her would mean breaking SacredHospitality.

Generally speaking, a LiteralGenie will make logical but basic interpretations of a wish. Nothing more and nothing less than what [[MakeAWish the wish]] ''[[ExactWords explicitly]]'' states. This is so that when a wish backfires, we can laugh at the foolishness of whoever made the wish, as opposed to the genie, who is supposedly [[JustFollowingOrders just doing their job]].

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'' fanfic "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6238727/1/Opposites-Destroy Opposites Destroy]]", the heroes are forced to fight Djinn, a Genie of the necklace who had a habit of manipulating his masters' wishes to produce the worst possible outcome as he believed that genies should rule humans rather than serve them. Djinn first appears when he is able to manipulate a little girl who has just heard Aladdin's story into making a sequence of wishes that free him from the usual limitations of genies while retaining his full power, and one of his first acts is to kill his would-be master just because he could before flying to Agrabah to try and kill Genie.

* In one ''Series/LazyTown'' episode, villain Robbie acquires a genie (by ordering it), and his first two wishes are for all the fruit and vegetables and all the sports equipment to disappear, but he forgets to specify a duration, and they return not 5 minutes later. Robbie then uses his final wish to get rid of Sportacus -- but the Genie gets rid of Robbie instead because he finds him "annoying".

What differentiates the Jackass Genie from the Literal Genie is sheer malice. This creature has it in for whoever has the misfortune of being his master and will make whatever bizarre interpretation is necessary to make the master's life a living hell. A Literal Genie will grant the wish as is, with no additional magic good or bad. The Jackass Genie will be the precise opposite of the BenevolentGenie, inserting the absolute worst version of any wish.

* Played for BlackComedy in ''WebVideo/DoorMonster'''s aptly-titled "I Have Nightmares About Genies": The genie (played by Kyle) demands that JP choose whether he will burn down JP's house or severely flood it, describing in detail how either option will likely end in JP's slow death. [[spoiler:When he hesitates, the genie adds: "Pick one, [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill or I'll do both.]]"]] The video ends before we can see his decision.

* Played for BlackComedy in ''WebVideo/DoorMonster'''s aptly-titled "I Have Nightmares About Genies": The genie (played by Kyle) demands that JP choose whether he will burn down JP's house or severely flood it, describing in detail how either option will likely end in JP's slow death. [[spoiler:When he hesitates, the genie adds: "Pick one, or I'll do both."]] The video ends before we can see his decision.

* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'': In one storyline Mister Mxyzptlk is trying to be helpful granting the wishes of people in Metropolis, however the wishes cause chaos in various ways: Buildings getting arms and legs and walking through the city when a resident wishes for a river view, hundreds of people winning the lottery, etc.

** In the first ''ComicBook/{{Excalibur}}'' storyline, the team took on a band of alien mercenaries called Technet. One member of Technet, Joyboy, has the power to telepathically discern his victim's fondest wish and grant it in as unpleasant a way as possible. He is able to take out [[Characters/XMen80sMembers Kitty Pryde]] (who at this time has to concentrate to stay solid) by granting her wish for a solid body. A five-hundred pound solid body. [[NoOntologicalInertia She reverted to normal once Joyboy is knocked unconscious.]]

* In ''World's Finest'' comic book story "The Three Magicians of Bagdad!", Franchise/{{Superman}} must pretend he's a genie who must obey the villain's commands. When commanded to bring gold, he brings ''molten'' gold. When commanded to bring a weapon he can seize the city with, Superman uses a long chain to bring lightning.

* ''Film/WonderWoman1984'' [[PlayedWith plays with this.]] The Dreamstone grants its victims’ wishes literally, but the ''cost'' of the wishes is so extreme that it usually isn’t worth it. For example, Barbara Minerva wishes to be more like Diana, so she becomes beautiful, confident and gets Diana’s powers to boot. [[spoiler: However, the Dreamstone takes her morality in exchange, eventually resulting in her turning into Cheetah.]] Wonder Woman’s wish is for [[spoiler: Steve Trevor to come back to life, but she only gets him back via possessing another man’s body, ''and'' she loses her powers in the deal. This is because the Stone was actually created by the Duke of Deception (reimagined in this universe to be the god of lies) specifically as ShmuckBait to doom humanity.]]

* One strip of ''Webcomic/PortSherry'' has a man free a genie and get three wishes as a token of the genie's gratitude. The man wishes for a hundred more wishes, ten more genies and absolute omnipotence. After a {{beat}} panel the genie reiterates that these wishes are just a token of gratitude and that he is in no way obligated to actually grant any of them if he doesn't feel like it because, well, he is free now. Furthermore, he was trapped in the lamp by humans in the past for a reason, what with him being an magical being of great evil, and is now planning on exacting revenge upon the entire human race, so whatever the man wishes will just make him, at best, a king among slaves. The man changes his wishes to "wealth, women and health", which the genie thinks sounds a lot better.

* WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs are plagued by a malicious Genie called Genie Meanie who makes the lives of the Smurfs miserable, and then dangerous when Gargamel takes control of him. Fortunately, Papa Smurf finds the special words to put him under his control, forces him to undo the harm he's done and finally orders him to stay in his container until he decides not to be mean anymore.

* The short "Once Upon a Star" from the ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' episode "Toon Physics" does this with a wishing star; Elmyra wishes on a star that her [[Franchise/{{Barbie}} Barbette]] doll were real so that they could play together. The wish brings Barbette to life. However, Barbette is [[ItsAllAboutMe very selfish, rude, and arrogant]]. The following night, Elmyra wishes on the same star, saying that she wants her Barbette doll to be just like her other dolls. Instead of turning her Barbette doll back to the way she was before, the star brings all her other dolls to life, who act just as selfish, rude, and arrogant as Barbette.

* ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'': Kyubey is a variation on this. While he grants wishes honestly and fully, he deliberately neglects to tell the wisher a few important details about the [[DealWithTheDevil contract]]--specifically, [[spoiler:that their soul will be removed from their body, and eventually they will become one of the monstrous witches they fight]]. The wishes people make are rarely, if ever, worth this level of sacrifice; and even if they were, his ultimate goal is to [[spoiler:destroy all of human civilization to create energy for his own]], making it all pointless from our perspective. [[spoiler:Until Madoka sends the jackassery [[FaustianRebellion back where it came from]].]]

*** First, Elizabeth manages to [[SesquipedalianLoquaciousness negotiate the cessation of hostilities against Port Royal]] in return for the Medallion. However, she neglects to negotiate her return to shore. Barbossa quickly abuses this by kidnapping her, stating that her return to shore was not part of the agreement, and so he "must" do nothing. Of course, as he points out, the Pirate's Code is for ''pirates''. In a sense, he was being courteous by negotiating with her at all.

** [[spoiler:Discord put a curse on the Sampo that makes it work so that it turns every request made of it into a cruel joke -- for instance, a reindeer who wished for the deaths of her enemies died multiple times in succession, each time in the way one of her foes was fated to die.]

* In ''Literature/TheScholomance'', the titular WizardingSchool provides written spells and spellbooks to students from the [[VoidBetweenTheWorlds Void Between The Walls]] on the condition that the student sits down and commits them to memory. Given that [[GeniusLoci it has taken a particular interest]] in one Galadriel Higgins and puts some effort into cultivating [[ApocalypseMaiden her]] [[EvilSorceress talents]] where El would [[BadPowersGoodPeople just as soon it did not]], thier relationship has strong overtones of this.

* ''VideoGame/PilgrimRPGMaker'': Master Alice, who grants wishes to people in exchange for thier souls, plays this role with Inago's wish, intentionally twisting it. Inago asked her to stop Akemi's bullies from picking on her. [[spoiler:She asked for them to be dealt with in a peaceful manner, but because that technically wasn't part of the deal, Alice pushed the bullies off the school building, killing them.]]

*** The fifth edition Monster Manual includes a story about a halfling who met a genie and wished for immortality. The genie turned him into a fish, which flopped around for a few minutes before suffocating. The in-universe narrator notes the story is a thousand-year old tale of caution, so [[ExactWords in a way, the halfling got his wish.]]

* ''TabletopGame/TombOfHorrors'':
** The module features a cursed gem that purports to grant wishes; when the wish is made, it will do an exact opposite or otherwise turn the wish against you (given example: when asked to bring somebody back from the dead, it'll instead destroy his remains, or even kill somebody else), AND then it explodes, burning everybody in the vicinity to death.
** There's also an efreeti in a bottle. If the players try to bargain with the efreeti to let him out, he'll grant three wishes but will be a jackass about it. If the players mishandle his bottle in any way he won't even give them that; he simply attacks them outright. If the players open the bottle without attempting to bargain with the efreeti, however, he'll grant their three wishes without any malice.

* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'': [[LouisCypher Lucius Needful's]] shop is more or less like this, he'll give you something for free that'll fix your problem, but will also come with an ironic twist that'll screw you right over. However, he happened to come upon [[MadScientist Rick]], who isn't having any of his crap, and opens a store across from Needful that purges the curses for cash. Things didn't go too well for Mr. Needful after that.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'' episode "The First Adventure!", Scrooge and F.O.W.L. are simultaneously racing to find the Papyrus of Binding, a mystic paper which grants the request of anything written on it. However, it works just like a monkey's paw in that it's a malicious LiteralGenie that will screw you over unless you're ''very'' specific. The Papyrus was last taken by the pirate Captain Yellowbeak, but he only suffered while using it. He wished to escape from the pursuing Spanish Armada and the Papyrus transported their ship to the peak of a mountain, he wished for water, and his crew drowned on dry land. He wished to be free of the Papyrus's curse and he dropped dead on the spot.

*** Needles' wish in the 2012 game is to find his daughter Sophie Kane, who stabbed him in his left eye and is [[FinalGirl the only person to have ever survived an encounter with him]]. [[spoiler: He ends up getting [[BuriedAlive teleported into her casket]]. She [[DrivenToSuicide shot herself]] ten years prior, as you would expect from someone who witnessed their serial killer father murder their family.]] In the original draft, he [[spoiler:finds Sophie, in this version not related to him and who has become a serial killer like him, and [[InLoveWithYourCarnage he falls in love with her]] right before she [[OffWithHisHead decapitates him]] [[ShearMenace with a pair of hedge clippers]] and uses his flaming head as a torch to hunt more civilians]].

*** 2012 Dollface's wish is to be on the world's largest runway. [[spoiler: She's teleported onto an airstrip and run over by a plane.]] In the first draft, she wishes to have her mask removed like her ''Black'' counterpart, [[spoiler: but is horrified by her own reflection, puts her mask back on, and is also run over]]. In the third draft, she gets the mask removed, [[spoiler: but her face now looks like it and she goes on a spree of murdering supermodels out of rage]].