History Main / NotQuiteForever

-->'''Darrin:''' [Sighs] "-for two weeks." [Endora vanishes] [[hottip:*:If you care what the third was, it came into play at the episode's end as a BrickJoke. After a shower, he says it was great and he wished he could have another. He got teleported back into the now-running-again shower with his clothes on.]]

* From ''WinnieThePooh'';

* [[http://garfield.nfshost.com/2007/01/24/ This]] {{Garfield}} strip.

* In an episode of ''{{LazyTown}}'', the group of friends turn on Stephanie and break their "friends forever" promise. The [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBDb2zG_8ug song that follows]] is enough to [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming break anybody's heart]]:

-->'''Darrin:''' "I wish that your mother would stay out of our lives forev-"\\

* Apparently expected by HomestarRunner when he is told he must stay with the demon in Strong Mad's creepy painting "for all eternity". He spends the last part of the episode asking if eternity is "over" yet. That said, he did appear again outside the painting, so either the trope or NegativeContinuity was invoked.

TethercatPrinciple is almost the exact opposite of this trope.

* From ''PeterPan'':

* The [[TheStarsAreGoingOut whole plot]] of IsaacAsimov's ''The Last Question'' [[DistantPrologue starts with this trope]]:

* [[MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Nightmare Moon]] was banished permanently, for 1000 years.

* In ''{{Bewitched}},'' Endora gives Darrin three wishes, and makes Samantha believe he used them to be with another woman. When the truth is discovered, but it turns out that she actually ''did'' give him three wishes and he just hadn't used them, he uses his first wish to summon Endora, proving that he still had them. The second?

* The whole plot of IsaacAsimov's ''The Last Question'' starts with this trope:

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' has Wakko essentially sell his soul to a Swedish-accented Death for a Swedish meatball (this being a parody of ''TheSeventhSeal'', which was a Swedish film). Death drags Wakko down to the netherworld with him, with Yakko and Dot in hot pursuit; once there, they find their brother reduced to a passive mind-slave who is forbidden to do literally ''anything'', even talk (except when someone talks to him first). Yakko and Dot demand that Death set Wakko free - and he tells them that they will be reunited with their brother if they can beat him in a game of checkers. Well, they do - and Death then reveals that [[LoopholeAbuse when he said Yakko and Dot would be reunited with their brother, he meant that]] ''[[LoopholeAbuse they'd]]'' [[LoopholeAbuse be imprisoned in the netherworld, too]]! Since they're now trapped for all eternity, the siblings refer to Death as their father and urge him to play with them; their pranks and annoying behavior drive him absolutely berserk. What ''really'' drives Death to the breaking point is when Yakko cheerfully says: "Just think, we get to be here [[SanitySlippage forever and ever and ever and....]]" "Maybe I was a bit hasty," Death says, and he tells the kids they're free to go - for now. Someday they must return, but Death hopes that it won't be for a very long time!

* In ''{{Bewitched}},'' Endora gives Darrin three wishes, and makes Samantha believe he used them to be with another woman. When the truth is discovered, but it turns out that she actually ''did'' give him three wishes and he just hadn't used them, he uses his first wish to summon Endora, proving that he still had them. The second?

* In LordOfTheRings, Araagorn tells Treebeard that the humans will never forget his deeds. Treebeard says: ''"Never" is too long a word even for me. Not while your kingdoms last, you mean; but they will have to last long indeed to seem long to Ents.''

* [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Homer Simpson]] in the year 1974, to his cynical father: "No way, man! We're gonna keep on rockin' forever....forever....forever....''[cut to 1996, and a suddenly "uncool" and morose older Homer]'' [[IronicEcho "forever....forever....forever...."]]
** Another ''Simpsons'' example: Attorney Lionel Hutz once helped a client with a false-advertising lawsuit against ''TheNeverEndingStory''.

* An episode of ''{{Animaniacs}}'' has Wakko essentially sell his soul to a Swedish-accented Death for a Swedish meatball (this being a parody of ''TheSeventhSeal'', which was a Swedish film). Death drags Wakko down to the netherworld with him, with Yakko and Dot in hot pursuit; once there, they find their brother reduced to a passive mind-slave who is forbidden to do literally ''anything'', even talk (except when someone talks to him first). Yakko and Dot demand that Death set Wakko free - and he tells them that they will be reunited with their brother if they can beat him in a game of checkers. Well, they do - and Death then reveals that [[LoopholeAbuse when he said Yakko and Dot would be reunited with their brother, he meant that]] ''[[LoopholeAbuse they'd]]'' [[LoopholeAbuse be imprisoned in the netherworld, too]]! Since they're now trapped for all eternity, the siblings refer to Death as their father and urge him to play with them; their pranks and annoying behavior drive him absolutely berserk. What ''really'' drives Death to the breaking point is when Yakko cheerfully says: "Just think, we get to be here [[SanitySlippage forever and ever and ever and....]]" "Maybe I was a bit hasty," Death says, and he tells the kids they're free to go - for now. Someday they must return, but Death hopes that it won't be for a very long time!

* [[http://garfield.nfshost.com/2007/01/24/ This]] {{Garfield]] strip.

* An episode of ''{{Animaniacs}}'' has Wakko essentially sell his soul to a Swedish-accented Death for a Swedish meatball (this being a parody of ''TheSeventhSeal'', which was a Swedish film). Death drags Wakko down to the netherworld with him, with Yakko and Dot in hot pursuit; once there, they find their brother reduced to a passive mind-slave who is forbidden to do literally ''anything'', even talk (except when someone talks to him first). Yakko and Dot demand that Death set Wakko free - and he tells them that they will be reunited with their brother if they can beat him in a game of checkers. Well, they do - and Death then reveals that [[LoopholeAbuse when he said Yakko and Dot would be reunited with their brother, he meant that]] ''[[LoopholeAbuse they'd]]'' [[LoopholeAbuse be imprisoned in the netherworld, too]]! Since they're now trapped for all eternity, the siblings refer to Death as their father and urge him to play with them; their pranks and annoying behavior drive him absolutely berserk. What ''really'' drives Death to the breaking point is when Yakko cheerfully says: "Just think, we get to be here forever and ever and ever and...." "Maybe I was a bit hasty," Death says, and he tells the kids they're free to go - for now. Someday they must return, but Death hopes that it won't be for a very long time!

* The 1979 JudasPriest song "Rock Forever". The song just friggin' ''stops''! Couldn't they have just had a gradual fading out, so we could ''pretend'' they rocked forever?

* [[TheSimpsons Homer Simpson]] in the year 1974, to his cynical father: "No way, man! We're gonna keep on rockin' forever....forever....forever....''[cut to 1996, and a suddenly "uncool" and morose older Homer]'' [[IronicEcho "forever....forever....forever...."]]