History Main / MiraculousMalfunction

* Researchers at Pfizer were trying to develop a drug to treat angina and high blood pressure. The drug they created, sildenafil, turned out to be not all that great at treating chest pains or high blood pressure. What it *did* do was cause men, even [[TheLoinsSleepTonight impotent]] men, to get erections. So instead of treating chest pains Pfizer marketed their drug as an "erectile dysfunction" treatment under the brand name Viagra.

* The material that became ComicBook/CaptainAmerica's circular shield was created accidentally during an experiment to merge vibranium and an iron alloy. An unknown catalyst entered the mixture while the scientist overseeing it was asleep.
* When the Comicbook/MetalMen were introduced in UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks, it was stated that they came out fully sentient because of freak solar flare activity or some such. Doc Magnus was never able to recreate the phenomenon to make more sentient robots.

* In ''Film/MemoirsOfAnInvisibleMan'', a cup of coffee shorting out a laser machine causes an explosion that turns pieces of the building (and protagonist Nick) invisible. Even more "miraculous" in the book where the malfunctioning machinery is not even the slightest tangentially related to anything that would cause invisibility. Jenkins, the CIA agent out to turn Nick into an invisible asset for the agency [[SinisterSpyAgency by hook or by crook]], demonstrates he is pure StupidEvil by [[NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup killing the scientist in charge of the project]] as one of his schemes to smoke Nick out.

* In ''Literature/MemoirsOfAnInvisibleMan'', it's implied that someone spilling a cup of coffee on a control panel resulted in uncontrolled but permanent invisibility, in a lab whose research had ''nothing to do with invisibility''.

* In '’Film/MemoirsOfAnInvisibleMan'', a cup of coffee shorting out a laser machine causes an explosion that turns pieces of the building (and protagonist Nick) invisible. Even more "miraculous" in the book where the malfunctioning machinery is not even the slightest tangentially related to anything that would cause invisibility. Jenkins, the CIA agent out to turn Nick into an invisible asset for the agency [[SinisterSpyAgency by hook or by crook]], demonstrates he is pure StupidEvil by [[NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup killing the scientist in charge of the project]] as one of his schemes to smoke Nick out.

* In ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex'', the tachikomas [[spoiler:[[InstantAIJustAddWater become sapient]] due to an imperfection on one of their circuit boards caused by Bateau giving his "personal" tachikoma natural oil which corroded part of it. This tachikoma induced sapience in the others when their [=AIs=] were synchronized]]. They did try that with the fujikomas, yet that did not work. They never quite figured the reason out.

In [[MadScientist mad science]], "malfunction" does not mean fried circuits and [[GoingCritical broken equipment]] ([[PhlebotinumBreakdown sometimes]]) but often it turns out that a malfunction has created something wondrous. Usually there is no explanation to how a "malfunction" can make modifications that seem intelligent, and no mention to where it gets the parts for a technology that is entirely different from the intended. For example a toaster can easily become a time machine through Miraculous Malfunction.

This can be used as an [[AchievementsInIgnorance Achievement In Ignorance]] for the BunglingInventor (most of whose works are created in this manner). It can also serve as an alternative explanation to why there are NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup: it's not that the technology was lost but rather, the individual sample was a result of a one-time event that cannot be recreated. Particularly good researchers might then learn to ''reverse'' engineer this piece to create more, but usually they will be just as dumbfounded about how it works as everyone else even if they themselves have created it. Surpringly such technology will usually be surprisingly stable and not at all prone to PhlebotinumBreakdown, unless the plot suddenly calls for it. Note, that because of the poorly understood nature of such technology it ''can'' unexpectedly become dangerous.

* In ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex'', the tachikomas [[spoiler:become sapient due to an imperfection on one of their circuit boards caused by Bateau giving his "personal" tachikoma natural oil which corroded part of it. This tachikoma induced sapience in the others when their AI's were synchronized.]] They did try that with the fujikomas, yet that did not work. They never quite figured the reason out.

* When the Comicbook/MetalMen were introduced in the Silver Age, it was stated that they came out fully sentient because of freak solar flare activity or some such. Doc Magnus was never able to recreate the phenomenon to make more sentient robots.

* In ''WesternAnimation/CloudyWithAChanceOfMeatballs'', Flint hooks up his machine to the town's power station to give it enough electricity to create food from water. Instead, the extra power makes the machine take off like a rocket and start orbiting in the lower stratosphere, creating food that comes down in showers using moisture from the clouds. Later, being [[PhlebotinumBreakdown overworked]] makes the machine start overmutating the food and it eventually [[InstantAIJustAddWater gains sentience]].

* ''Film/ShortCircuit'': A robot is [[LightningCanDoAnything struck by lightning]] which causes a "malfunction" that gives it sentience.
* Happens in the 1984 film ''Film/ElectricDreams'': the hero, Miles, spills champagne on his PC while it is plugged into his company's megacomputer, causing his computer (of course!) [[InstantAIJustAddWater to come to life]].
* ''Film/HoneyIShrunkTheKids'': a stray baseball landing on the shrinking machine is what actually makes it work. Though Wayne Szalinski is able to figure out why the baseball made the machine functional, and replicate the results.

* ''Literature/DirkGentlysHolisticDetectiveAgency''--Professor Chronotis' time machine seems to be in a strange relationship with the telephone system. After he has his phone repaired, the time machine is inoperable too.
* Creator/IsaacAsimov's stories have several examples of unusual robots coming into being via a Miraculous Malfunction:

** "Literature/LightVerse": One of Mrs Lardner's robots is [[GoodOldRobot so old]] that it can barely function. She insists that he's able to do simple tasks well enough, hiding the fact that whatever malfunction that has made him terrible at most household tasks has also made him the greatest [[FictionalPainting light-sculptor]] on Earth. This hidden talent is only revealed after a US Robotics man [[NoMedicationForMe repairs him]].
** In the Lije Bailey series, the psychic robot, [[spoiler: Giskard]], is created this way.
** "Robot AL-76 Goes Astray" has the robot of the title managing to create a mountain destroying mining laser that runs on two D-batteries after being exposed to unexpected stimuli when lost on Earth.
** It's noted in "The Bicentennial Man" that Andrew was the result of a production error. US Robots tightens their controls as a result to prevent it happening again since expressive robots who want to be human are bad for business.

* In ''Literature/MemoirsOfAnInvisibleMan'', it's implied that someone spilling a cup of coffee on a control panel resulted in uncontrolled but permanent invisibility, in a lab whose research had ''nothing to do with invisibility''.
* In the Literature/{{Discworld}} books, this is the best case scenario of allowing [[BunglingInventor Bloody Stupid Johnson]] to build ''anything''. Case in point: his "improved manicure device" is best used for peeling potatoes.
* In Creator/MurrayLeinster's short story "A Logic Name Joe", a flaw in the wiring of the titular Logic (essential search engine terminals) somehow gives it the compulsion and ''ability'' to find a perfect, easy, workable answer to any query asked of him, even if it involves breaking the law or ''[[BeyondTheImpossible violating the laws of physics]]''. Such queries include how to easily build a perfect counterfeiting machine, commit the perfect murder, pull off the perfect bank robbery, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking mix a fast, effective hangover cure that eliminates all traces of having been drunk]], build a perpetual motion machine, and (in the case of TheProtagonist's StalkerWithACrush ex-girlfriend) find the exact location of someone who doesn't want you to find them. Oh, and it also makes Joe override the entire network, so any query asked of any Logic automatically goes to Joe instead.
* A darker example occurs in one of the vignettes in [[Creator/ArthurMachen Arthur Machen's]] ''The Three Impostors'' (specifically, ''The Novel of the White Powder''), where a character's antidepressant prescription is accidentally filled from an expired batch of the drug that (thanks to unknown environmental conditions) has randomly degraded to the point of being chemically identical to ''Vinum Sabbati'', the wine of the witch's sabbath (which isn't wine so much as a sort of horrifying [[FantasticDrug eldritch version of ecstasy]] that temporarily converts the taker into a HumanoidAbomination). Since [[PhlebotinumOverdose the prescribed dosage of antidepressant is several orders of magnitude larger (and much more frequent) than the amount of ''Vinum Sabbati'' offered at a Witch's Sabbath]], BodyHorror ensues, and the unfortunate victim is eventually [[ImMelting reduced to a permanent mucous stain]] [[AndIMustScream (but not actually killed)]].
** However, the miraculousness can be explained by the fact that the vignettes in story [[UnreliableNarrator are all lies]] (which doesn't necessarily mean ''Vinum Sabbati'' doesn't actually work that way, and [[SecretCircleOfSecrets the liar in question]] would definitely know if it did).
* In ''Literature/StarWarsKenobi'', Annileen Calwell's husband Dannar fiddled with a vaporator at their store once, and it began producing water so incredibly sweet and delicious that the farmers are afraid to ever touch the settings again, but that means they have trouble replicating the results. Their friend and business partner Orrin Gault has come close and is attempting to ramp up production (he considers it an exquisite irony that the desert planet might ''export'' water), but nothing can match Old Number One. [[spoiler:And then the Tuskens smash the control panel to bits during their raid on the Claim, [[NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup destroying the formula forever]]. Orrin's copycat vaporators somehow stop producing the sweetwater themselves after that, worsening his cashflow problem.]]

* In ''Series/MissionTopSecret'', the incident that allowed the MasterComputer to hijack an old communication satellite and establish contact with kids all over the world was caused by a jar of candy being spilled onto a keyboard. However it ''is'' reproducible because the program was still in the computer's memory.

* Invoked in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'', where Robotnik explicitly says that the creation of his "Super-Genius Program" was a million-to-one shot - and after the program is stolen and he orders his computer to make it again, the computer has to remind him of exactly this fact (which he said himself not five minutes before!).
* In "Time and Punishment," a WesternAnimation/TreehouseOfHorror on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', Homer's attempts to repair the toaster create a time-machine that sends him back to the Mesozoic. As soon as the toaster "pops," he returns to the 20th century, but that's enough time to totally alter the history and evolution of all life on Earth [[ButterflyOfDoom by swatting a bug]].

* ''TabletopGame/GeniusTheTransgression'' does not make use of this trope, curiously; rather, ''any'' new technological piece created by a genius is one-of-a-kind called a Wonder. Normals can cause breakdowns, but it stays on the "tweaking the original" level.

* In Murray Leinster's short story ''"A Logic Name Joe"'' a flaw in the wiring of the titular Logic (essential search engine terminals) somehow gives it the compulsion and ''ability'' to find a perfect, easy, workable answer to any query asked of him, even if it involves breaking the law or ''[[BeyondTheImpossible violating the laws of physics]]''. Such queries include how to easily build a perfect counterfeiting machine, commit the perfect murder, pull off the perfect bank robbery, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking mix a fast, effective hangover cure that eliminates all traces of having been drunk]], build a perpetual motion machine, and (in the case of TheProtagonist's StalkerWithACrush ex-girlfriend) find the exact location of someone who doesn't want you to find them. Oh, and it also makes Joe override the entire network, so any query asked of any Logic automatically goes to Joe instead.

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* In ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex'' the tachikomas [[spoiler: become sapient due to an imperfection on one of their circuit boards caused by Bateau giving his "personal" tachikoma natural oil which corroded part of it. This tachikoma induced sapience in the others when their AI's were synchronized.]] They did try that with the fujikomas, yet that did not work. They never quite figured the reason out.

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[[folder: Films -- Animated ]]

[[folder: Films -- Live-Action ]]

* ''Film/ShortCircuit'': a robot is [[LightningCanDoAnything struck by lightning]] which causes a "malfunction" that gives it sentience.

* In ''Film/InspectorGadget 2'', G2 swaps control chips with Gadget. Because of this, she gets some of his "glitches," which come with some fairly absurd side-effects. For example, her hat-mounted "boomerang gun" turns into a cartoon mallet, and her "net guns" turn into flying drones armed with rolls of ''wrapping paper''. [[MST3KMantra Just...don't ask.]]

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[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* In ''Series/RedDwarf'' episode 'Lemons', the crew tries to assemble a "rejuvenation shower" from flat pack. They don't use all the parts, and the finished shower looks decidedly wonky. Rather than simply not working, the shower - which is simply meant to rejuvenate the bather - transports them through time and space to Earth in the year 23 AD.

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