History Main / RhetoricalRequestBlunder

* TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms has a village called Maskyr's Eye. Back when humans were new in that part of the world, a human mage waqnted a quiet place [[MageTower for his tower]] and liked one vale. The territory did belong to a dwarven kingdom, so he got audience and asked Tuir "Stonebeard" (called so for grim stoicism -- ''[[UpToEleven for a dwarf]]''). The king didn't trust humans ''or'' powerful mages at all, and thus said "on one condition only: pluck thy right eye and give it to me here and now". He intended it as a somewhat poetical refusal and didn't expect anyone would really do such a thing.

-->--'''King Henry II''', of Archbishop Thomas Becket. [[hottip:* :Sadly for Becket, the people who overheard it weren't familiar with rhetorical questions]]

[[YetAnotherFantasyGamerComic [[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Cthier_saves_us_8101.png]]]]

[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Cthier_saves_us_8101.png]]

[[caption-width-right:300:C'thier is merciful]]

* ''{{Labyrinth}}'': When Sarah mutters to her colicky infant brother, "I wish the goblins would come and take you away. Right now," she has no idea they are listening.

[[quoteright:219:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TroublesomePriest3_2577.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:219:[-For they have whetted their tongues like a sword...-] ]]

* In ''ThrowMommaFromTheTrain'', Owen overhears Larry saying he wished his ex-wife were dead. He tries to kill said ex-wife so Larry will "owe" him th murder of Owen's mother. [[spoiler:[[SubvertedTrope Turns out the wife survives]], and Larry is not very good at murdering people.]]

* In ''ThrowMommaFromTheTrain'', Owen overhears Larry saying he wished his wife were dead. Guess what happens.
** [[SubvertedTrope You might not guess correctly, however.]]

* In ''TheThiefOfBaghdad'', Prince Ahmad sees the princess in an All-Seeing Eye and discovers that she is being courted by the villain. Understandably upset by this, he says "Oh, I wish I were in Baghdad right now!" His sidekick, the titular thief Abu, is annoyed by Ahmad's angsting over the princess by this point, so he says "I wish you were!" Unfortunately, a LiteralGenie is standing nearby, and whisks the prince away to Baghdad. Without Abu.

* In ''JusticeLeagueUnlimited'', this is the downfall of the ancient Thanagarians of whom Hawkgirl and Hawkman are supposed to be the reincarnations: Upon discovering his wife's infidelity with John Stewart's counterpart, Katar Hol hyperbolizes that he wishes they were dead. When the vizier takes this as a literal order and carries it out, Katar commits suicide in despair.

* Invoked in ''SailorNothing''. TheLibby Ami has been a thorn in the side for the heroes for all of the story, with pretty much all of them having some sort of grudge against her. [[spoiler:Thus, in order to show the heroes just what it means to ''hate'' somebody, [[TheDragon Argon]] decides to [[FateWorseThanDeath give them what they want]], or ''thought'' they want until they actually saw what it entailed.]]

* ''SchlockMercenary'' has this:

* In AhMyGoddess, there's a non-death related example in the beginning: Keiichi makes a wish that he didn't think would really be granted, to have a Goddess like Belldandy, whom he just met, stay with him forever.

* Throughout the SuzumiyaHaruhi series Kyon continually wishes that he were living a normal life. In the fourth book (and in TheMovie), [[spoiler:Yuki provides just that. At least she's smart enough to give him an 'out' in case he doesn't like it.]]

* In TheThiefOfBaghdad, Prince Ahmad sees the princess in an All-Seeing Eye and discovers that she is being courted by the villain. Understandably upset by this, he says "Oh, I wish I were in Baghdad right now!" His sidekick, the titular thief Abu, is annoyed by Ahmad's angsting over the princess by this point, so he says "I wish you were!" Unfortunately, a LiteralGenie is standing nearby, and whisks the prince away to Baghdad. Without Abu.

* In {{Shakespeare}}'s ''King John'' the title character tries to claim he's in this situation when the peers react badly to the (supposed) death of Arthur [[hottip:* :who ends up getting killed trying to escape from prison while the man charged with killing him is lying to John about his death]] on John's orders -- although when he ''gives'' those orders he is obviously worried his hints aren't blatant enough.

* In the DiscWorld novel Discworld/AHatFullOfSky, Tiffany says that the Nac Mac Feegle can be like this.

* In ''CodeGeass'', Lelouch says that with his powers, he could tell Euphemia something like [[spoiler:"Kill all the Japanese."]] Bit of bad timing on that one, as Lelouch's mind control powers went into ModeLock at ''that exact moment''.

* [[TheHouseOfPlantagenet Henry II]] was frustrated with Archbishop Thomas Becket, his former friend, and said, "Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest?" A couple of Mooks decided to take care of it themselves, by killing Becket. Henry II took it badly, as did many in England. The reason for Henry's frustration, namely Becket defying the wishes of the king who had nominated him [[hottip:*:Henry II had been laying the foundations of the English legal system (which would, in its turn, become the foundation for the legal system of half the world). The Church objected to being expected, distinctly against the custom of the time, to obey national laws, in one of the pivotal clashes between church and state]], had alienated many who already regarded Henry as an outsider (neither an Englishman or even a Norman, but an ''Angevin'') who was subverting local custom and concentrating too much power in the central government. Becket's personal popularity and the fact that he was discovered to be wearing a hairshirt under his clothing (a rather serious act of asceticism, as hairshirts are about as comfortable as a shirt made of sandpaper) only added to the outrage that a high clergyman had been openly murdered in a church; Henry had to perform public penance over the issue and Becket rapidly became St. Thomas.

* In ''TrueBlood'', whe Tara tells [[spoiler:Maryanne]] to leave her and Eggs out of the shenanigans, she retorts that Tara was the one who summoned her. The exorcism that Tara thought was a fake turned out to be a real...maynaid summoning spell? Something along those lines, anyway.

* In ''[[NationalLampoonsChristmasVacation National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation]]'', Mr Griswold reacts to the news that he received a subscription to a Jelly-of-the-Month Club in lieu of a Christmas Bonus from his boss by ranting that he wished the boss was right there so he could chew him out. His brother promptly jumps into his RV and kidnaps said boss.

* In ''JusticeLeagueUnlimited'', this is the downfall of the ancient Thanagarians of whom Hawkgirl and Hawkman are supposed to be the reincarnations: Upon discovering his wife's infidelity, Katar Hol hyperbolizes that he wishes she were dead. When the vizier takes this as a literal order and carries it out, Katar commits suicide in despair.

* Throughout the SuzumiyaHaruhi series Kyon continually wishes that he were living a normal life. In the fourth book (and in the anime), [[spoiler:Yuki provides just that. At least she's smart enough to give him an 'out' in case he doesn't like it.]]

* ''[[AnitaBlake Blue Moon]]'': Anita angrily says she wants a woman's "head in basket." She is shocked and horrified when [[LiteralMinded it is delivered]]. Worth noting that the punishment for the person was execution anyway, Anita just...got the head.

Sometimes a character may think he is speaking to himself, but unbeknownst to him someone is listening, and ready to act on his wishes. Alternatively, a character in company may speak in hyperbole, thinking no sane person would actually do it. He could be [[LiteralMinded fataly wrong]] on that point. Or there might be someone insane around.

** The idea comes from the book [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler%27s_War ''Hitler's War'']], which not only had its own
counter-book, but after a libel suit in court, said counter-book was proven true ''in a court of law''.