This Is Wrong on So Many Levels!

"This is wrong on more levels than I can count. And they're both really basic levels, too."

— Fighter, 8-Bit Theater

Dialog meant to describe a situation that is, well, wrong in various ways all at once. There is no hard and fast minimum of exactly how many "levels" it needs to be wrong. It just needs to be hard to describe just how wrong the situation is.

Can be used in both comedy and drama. In comedy, if anyone ever asks for the speaker to elaborate, they'll do an Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking progression, ending with "... and that pink ball gag is just tacky."

Also doesn't need to be the word "wrong", or "levels", as long as the format sticks. People of a geeky persuasion can also allude to the concept as being "fractally wrong": no matter the level you look at it, it's always wrong — resembling a Mandelbrot curve, which has similar features at every scale.^note As a fractal, it can't be many kinds of wrong, only the same kind of wrong no matter how you view it. Associating this expression with fractals is as redundant as the notion of 'levels' in fractals, by design.

A specific variant phrase is "Sick and Wrong", which usually involves something that would require Brain Bleach. Occasionally paired with Head-Tiltingly Kinky.

And That's Terrible.

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In-Universe Examples Only:

Anime and Manga

• Rein rather memorably utters this exact phrase in the English dub of Best Student Council.
• In Koe de Oshigoto! several characters point out to Yayoi that making her underage sister Kanna work as an eroge seiyuu is sick and wrong, to which she responds there is no law against it.
• Used at least twice in Negima! Magister Negi Magi. Once by Chamo, in a bath scene with naked, adult form Evangeline sucking blood from the protesting, 10 year-old Negi's arm. Once by Sayo after witnessing Kazumi's reaction to finding out what winding feels like to Chachamaru.
• Happens at the start of the Assassination Classroom anime.
  Korosensei: How do you do? I'm the one that blasted your moon. I plan to do the same to Earth next year. Now I'm your teacher. Nice to meet you.
  Students, in perfect unison: There are at least six things wrong with this picture!
  Nagisa, narrating: The feeling was unanimous.

Comic Books

• Southpaw expresses this feeling when she and She-Hulk learn that they're under constant surveillance by The Watcher.
• West Coast Avengers (2018): Clint has this to say when America Chavez brings the team to the Shrimp Dimension:
  "This is disturbing on so many levels."
• Supergirl:
  • Jason Blood probably summed the situation up best, when the demon Etrigan broke off a brawl with Supergirl to drop to his knees and ask for her hand in marriage.
    Etrigan: Marry me. Do not say maybe./Take me as your demon lover; bear my demon baby. (kisses her hand)
    Jason Blood: This is wrong on so many levels, I don't even know where to start.
  • In Many Happy Returns, Kara -the Silver Age Supergirl- tries to push Earth out of its orbit. Her friend Linda's reaction?
    Linda: What you're doing is wrong on so many levels, it...
• Batman: Damian Wayne's opinion of schizophrenic mutilation enthusiast and completely batshit Professor Pyg?
  "You just redefined wrong."
• In Transformers: More than Meets the Eye, specifically Liars, A to D Part 3: The Chaos of Warm Things, first we get an assessment about a Transformer's fatal injuries that go on to Squick the crew.
  Trailbreaker: A brain module sitting outside a body without a head wound. Now I'm no doctor, but that strikes me as intensely wrong.
  Rewind: Woah. Two questions. One: Are we saying he vomited up his own brain? And two: can I please go home now?
  • Afterwards, we get this little exchange that, even with context, can't help but be absurdly creepy. ^note Chromedome is a mnemosurgeon, a Transformer able to read the memories of any other Transformer, living or dead It is, if anything, More Disturbing In Context.
    Chromedome: Ratchet, could you put his brain back in his head? With corpses, I prefer to go through the eye sockets.
    Drift: I cannot begin to tell you what's wrong with that sentence.
• In Sin City, Nancy reveals to Hartigan that she fell in love with him because he rescued her, and makes a pass at him. He rejects her, because he first met her when she was still a child.
  Hartigan: God! There's wrong, and there's wrong, and then there's this!

Fan Works

• Bring Me All Your Elderly!: this is Aang's response to Katarola trying to forcefully make out with him.
  • Also Katara's response to Sockson trying to hit on her.
    Katara: There are so many things wrong with what you just said that I can't even begin to describe it! I'm the animated version of your sister! What's wrong with you? And second - that was completely out of character! And third - you're a jerk! And fourth - I'm with Aang! And fifth - I'm not Japanese! And last - and last... you're a jerk! And you're sick! And - EWWW, Ugh!
• This is what Odd thinks about the Dix-Neuf joke in the first Omake of Code: Half Demon. You have to pronounce dix-neuf: dez-nutz to get the joke.
• This is what Weiss and Yang think of them being shipped together in Weiss Reacts.
• In Fail Better, Lucia comments with this line when she sees her all-time best friend Ellen flirting with her step-descendant, Lee (who is one generation below even Ellen's apparent age). She wasn't remembering most of her life at the time, but Lucia certainly was...
• Escape from the Moon: In the sequel The Mare From the Moon, when Spike mentions that all winged species can walk on clouds, Spliced's reaction is that “That is impossible on so many levels that I cannot even begin to describe how impossible that is.” She's quickly proven wrong when Rainbow Dash pushes a cloud into the room and sits on it. Then again when Starlight levitates Spliced herself onto the cloud, which she finds is quite solid to her.

Films — Animated

• Bolt:
  Bolt: If I stare at the lock really hard, it'll burst into flames and melt.
  Mittens: (stares at him) Now I'm concerned on a number of levels.
• The Lion King 1 ˝: When Timon propositions marriage to Shenzi as part of his diversion, the latter states that the former's implication of Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action "violates so many laws of nature".
• Teacher's Pet:
  Ivan Krank: Oh, haven't you heard, my good man? Nature is dead! Science is king!
  Mr. Jolly: Oh, that is just wrong on so many levels.

Films — Live-Action

• Galaxy Quest.
  Guy: (watching Laliari sprout tentacles as she makes out with Fred on the floor) Ohhhh, that's not right!
• Kiss Kiss Bang Bang:
  Harry: This is every shade of wrong.
• Jason X : In response to being sucked into space:^note And possibly inadvertently Leaning on the Fourth Wall, according to one or two critics.
  Janessa: Oh, this sucks on so many levels!
• Must Love Dogs, after the heroine realises she answered her own father's personal ad:
  Sarah: This is disturbing on many levels.

Live-Action TV

• In Off Centre, some people are changing at a gym. While they are naked, some guys get into a fight, dragging the main characters into it. One of them says the phrase.
• In Rome, Octavia says this when she and Jocasta see that Atia is having the slave Duro, who tried to poison Atia on Servillia's orders, tortured because the testimony of a slave is only valid under torture. Atia doesn't plan on taking Servillia to court, she plans on killing her, and the confession can be used to claim it was self defense if she's caught.
• In the second episode of Dead Like Me, George is impaled with a clip on a stick, due to being too close to one of her 'customers' dying (being a Reaper, she got better). Later that night, she has a coughing fit...and spits up the clip. We pretty much agree with her when she says 'Oh that's not right, that's not right!'.
• Grey's Anatomy:
  • Episode "Owner of a Lonely Heart":
    Dr. George O'Malley: Oh, that was wrong on so many levels.
  • Episode "A Hard Day's Night":
    Dr. Meredith Grey: [grabs her bra from him] Humiliating, on so many levels. You have to go.
• Stargate SG-1 episode "Paradise Lost":
  [Maybourne tosses an explosive in the lake to 'catch' some fish]
  Colonel Jack O'Neill: That is just wrong on so many levels.
• Andromeda episode "Pride Before the Fall":
  Beka Valentine: If you do this and you kill me...
  Seamus Harper: We will always think fondly of you.
  Beka Valentine: This is so humiliating on so many levels.
• The West Wing pilot: after Sam recounts the day's bad events and, among other things, admits to sleeping with a prostitute and that he's trying to impress his boss's daughter... to his boss's daughter:
  Sam Seaborn: Well, this is bad on so many levels.
• I Love Money episode "Only the Weak Survive":
  Nibblz: [after losing to Mr. Boston on "The Bed Battle"] This sucks on so many levels. Not only did I lose, I lost to Mr. Boston. Do you know how bad that is going to look for me back in Brooklyn?
• On Mystery Science Theater 3000, this was practically one of Joel's catchphrases.
  Joel: Oh, come on, this is so offensive on so many levels...
• Arrested Development, of course:
  Michael (played by Jason Bateman, to Nellie, a prostitute he believes to be his sister, played by Justine Bateman, Jason's real sister!) "Marry me!... that's wrong on so many levels."
• On Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Wayne Brady said this at the end of one game that... well, see for yourself.
• Scrubs had Elliot describing something Jordan said as "disturbing in, like, eight different ways." The new Main Character Lucy also recently had so much to do, that she "had to do my dad phone call, while having sex with my boyfriend. So many things wrong with that, not the least of which is that it was the most turned on I've ever been".
• On Wings, when Joe learned Roy was ordering a mail-order bride: "This is wrong on so many levels, it's hard to describe without charts."
• Dollhouse episode "Omega":
  Caroline!Wendy: The wrongness of this is so large.
• Variation in Angel:
  Lilah: Mind if I join you?
  Wesley: On many levels and with great intensity.
• Castle says this after Alexis tells him that her Egg Sitting partner has 'killed' the egg to get back at her.
• On Project Runway, judge Michael Kors once told a designer who offered a truly awful "1970s-inspired" outfit: "Those plaid pants would be against every fashion law of nature in any decade."
• On The X-Files, after Mulder tries giving scientific explanations on a pseudo-vampire's death, the doctor who is checking on the corpse replies "You are really upsetting me. On several levels".
• Used as a pun by the UK Alibi channel's continuity announcer for the Murdoch Mysteries episode "Murdoch in Ladies Wear": "A department store manager found dead in a lift. Wrong on many levels."
• A Saturday Night Live sketch from the mid-late 80s featured a guy making a smartass comment about an absent acquaintance, and the woman to whom he was talking went into a complex musical number detailing the levels on which the joke offended her.

Newspaper Comics

• Frank and Ernest shows the title characters at "F & E Carpentry Supplies MFG". Next to Ernest is a box of levels. Ernest is looking at one and remarking, "All of these are off by several degrees." Frank responds, "How could we be wrong on so many levels?!"
• In Pearls Before Swine, this is how Paris Goat describes Rat's idea to drive a beer truck—which is just like an ice-cream truck, but with beer, and it's for kids. It doesn't help that Pig gets excited for "beer-sicles".
• In Zits, when Jeremy confesses to his mother about buying an essay with her credit card:
  Jeremy's Mother: YOU BOUGHT HOMEWORK ONLINE WITH MY CREDIT CARD? Jeremy, that is wrong on SO many levels! It's cheating! It's stealing! And it's STUPID!

Radio

• In Keep Calman Carry On, Susan Calman explains why her wife can sit in silence while she needs a TV or radio on in every room of the house.
  Susan: Of course, the reality is that, when she sits in silence, she's just enjoying her own company. She doesn't need to have her head filled with white noise, because she was brought up in a family that talked about their emotions and feelings, meaning that she, as an adult, feels comfortable and happy with herself. I know, it's wrong on every level.

Stand-Up Comedy

• One of Tim Vine's favourite jokes:
  Crime in multi-storey car parks - that is wrong on so many different levels.
• Discussed and Lampshaded by Hannibal Burress:
  "Very upsetting on so many levels; really not that many levels. People overuse that – 'it was messed up on so many levels.' Please name every level. 'Well metaphysical, level three, eye level, sea level...' Shut up man, fuck your struggles, stop being dramatic."

Video Games

• Persona 4 has the Crossdressing Beauty Pageant. Crossdressing Kanji-Chan comes onto the stage. Two girls talk about how creepy it looks, and one boy invokes the Trope:
  Boy's Voice: This is wrong on every level...
• Fallout: New Vegas: Benny, who tried to have you murdered, has this as a response if you seduce him with Black Widow option, as a female character:
  All right, honey baby, this is all kinds of wrong, but to my suite it is. Thirteenth floor. Don't keep me waiting.
• Chapter 102 of Princess Connect Redive's in-game 4Koma has Hiyori flying Djeeta as a human kite (it makes a certain amount of sense in context). As she flies through the air, Djeeta thinks (emphasis theirs):
  This is wrong... It's all wrong... But it's actually pretty fun...!

Webcomics

• In this xkcd strip, one character says this about a Final Fantasy VII mod that changes other characters' appearance and dialog to that of Aeris, so that you could pretend the character didn't die. Specifically, about its use by someone who is also having trouble dealing with an actual death.
• Something*Positive: "Oh... Davan, that is so not-good on so many not-good levels."
• 8-Bit Theater:
  • During the Dr'zzl fight
    Fighter: That's wrong on more levels than I can count, and both of them are really basic levels.
  • And upon meeting Berserker
    Black Mage: "There are two things wrong with that sentence, and both of them are all of it."
• In Bob and George, the recurring cameo fan-character Ran, a fragile and cheaply built Communist robot who constantly respawns when killed, gives us this gem when Napalm Man disagrees with his admittedly creative methods for stopping a fire.
  Napalm Man: Are you beating out the flames with your own corpse?
  Ran: Uh... yeah...
  Napalm Man: That is wrong in so many ways.
• El Goonish Shive has this:
  Justin: This is messed up on so many levels. I'm guessing you don't visit your cousin and uncle that much?
  Nanase: It's common sense not to.
• Tavros of Homestuck tries to explain to Vriska that being directly responsible (even if only after the fact) for creating the Big Bad currently making their life hell is not a good thing:
  AT: wOW, nO, tHAT'S,
  AT: i DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO SAY ALL THE WAYS i THINK THAT IS CRAZY,
• At one point in Kid Radd, Radd uses Sheena as a club. Fortunately, she's invulnerable. It's still "a whole new kind of wrong".
• The titular wombat of Digger has this reaction to Shadowchild's first memories.

Web Original

• In Dragon Ball Z Abridged we get introduced to Trunks during the Android/Cell saga. Bulma's response to meeting him is to almost immediately start hitting on him, unaware that he's her Kid from the Future that hasn't been born or even conceived at that point. Her pick up line provokes some perfectly understandable internal screams of horror and disgust from Trunks. Bulma is also squicked out when the truth finally catches up to her years later.
  Bulma: Hey, I'm just gonna throw this out there, but you're really cute.
  Trunks: Well you know, my mother always said I was a cute kid...
  Bulma: Oh, a momma's boy, huh? I'll be your mommy. (winks suggestively)
  Future Trunks: *Forces himself to hold a strained smile while screaming internally*
  (later)
  Bulma: ...oh my God, I solicited my son for sex.
• The Nostalgia Critic commented during his review of Milk Money that the film was "a five-star restaurant menu of wrong."
  • And in The Star Wars Holiday Special, in the segment of the Holographic "Wow": "This is wrong... This is a holocaust of wrong".
• In Atop the Fourth Wall, Linkara reviewed the Kool-Aid Man comic, and a girl was kissing the Kool-Aid Man, and a caption said the phrase of this trope.
• Seanbaby's take on Custer's Revenge:
  Custer: "Gentlemen, today's operation will be a unique one. We will go deep into injun territory with a full entourage of cavalry, establish a tight perimeter, have the infantry remove my pants and underpants, and then I will attempt to force sex on an Indian girl under heavy enemy fire. Are there any objections?"
  Custer's military advisor: "Yes, general. Several."
• This video warns us: "Don't watch an anime called Boku! Man, this shit is SO wrong in so many motherfucking levels yo..."
• MegaMan and Pompous Robots has Bass, in one of the hidden easter eggs, telling Dr. Wily one of his creations is "all kinds of wrong".

Western Animation

• Kim Possible: Ron has "Sick and Wrong!" as a Catchphrase. (Others use it too, but mostly him.) Beyond that is "Wrongsick!", and for a example (not from Ron) in the episode "Bad Boy". Ron becomes evil and Drakken becomes nice:
  Shego: This is Sick and Wrong on so many levels!
• Became a Running Gag in one Danny Phantom episode where the line was uttered whenever someone came in dressed as Sam for their own reasons—respectively Tucker and Grandma Ida. Wrong indeed.
• Phineas and Ferb, episode "Journey to the Center of Candace" where Phineas and Ferb have shrunk themselves and a submarine to get inside Isabella's chihuahua Pinky. But things didn't quite go exactly as planned....
  Phineas: Yeah, we're inside Candace's stomach.
  Ferb: That's creepy on so many levels.
  Phineas: Candace is on her date with Jeremy. That means we're on a date with Jeremy.
  Ferb: Again, creepy on so many levels.
  • Candace has this reaction to her brothers attempting to hatch an egg with a robotic platypus butt in "Perry Lays an Egg":
    Candace: That's so wrong in so many ways, I don't even know where to start.
• On The Venture Bros., this was the Pirate's response to walking in on Sally Impossible while she was naked, with her resulting Freak Out resulting in her skin turning invisible and the Pirate getting a good full-body glimpse of her muscles and organs.
  • Also recently cited by Dr. Mrs. The Monarch with respect to the Monarch's obsession with his new "Butterglider": "...They don't even have a name for what this is!"
• Once uttered by Grim in The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, in response to one of Billy's many grievous errors in common sense.
• In the Time Squad episode "The Prime Minster Has No Clothes", this is Buck Tuddrussel's response to Larry going swimming with a naked Winston Churchill:
  Tuddrussel: A three-hundred pound man skinny-dippin' with a robot... that just ain't right.
  Otto: I gotta wash my eyes!
• In an episode of Brain POP, Chip the chipmunk appeared selling Tim & Moby's tulips. And then, Tim said this. (On web airings, Tim says, "Aw, Chip!")
• In one episode of Family Guy, Peter makes a long analogy involving Woody Allen with a "Chinaman." Lois gently informs him to "hold on to that thought, because I'm gonna explain to you when we get home all the things that are wrong with that statement."
• In the Ed, Edd n Eddy episode "Three Squares And An Ed", Edd has this reaction when he sees that Ed's parents took down the basement stairs to keep him grounded.
  Edd: That's...disturbing.
• In the legendary Invader Zim episode, "Backseat Drivers From Beyond The Stars", this is Dib's reaction to Zim's attempt at trash talk.
  Zim: Go home and shave your giant head of smell with your bad self!
  Dib: (Beat) Okay, there's all kinds of things wrong with what you just said.
• In the Ben 10: Ultimate Alien episode "Double or Nothing", Gwen has this reaction when she sees her stage show counterparts, the Gwenettes.
• In the first Robot Chicken Star Wars special, one very short clip towards the end has Luke and Leia in bed. The single line sums it up:
  Leia: That was so wrong...

Other

• I'm sorry sir, but that will fail on so many different levels.
  • Not Always Right also has one called Not Always Right on So Many Levels.
• Once upon a time there was a very large office building in a very large city. This building had 40 levels....
• That is wrong on so many levels, I think I had to fight a boss or two
• Mitch Benn:
  Well I guess you must put out a track to
  Cash in on winning The X Factor
  Do you have to murder Hallelujah?
  ...
  It's several different kinds of wrong
  Stick to Mariah Carey songs
  And stay the hell away from Hallelujah
• The last episode of Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles featured this little exchange:
  Caboose's Mental Image of Sister/Church: (flatly) Hey, what's up?
  Church: Hey who the fuck are you? Sister?
  Caboose's Mental Image of Sister: Yep. I'm Sister... Church's twin brother. I came here in a spaceship, that came from the moon. It crashed next to Blue Base, and now I live with Caboose, and the people from the tail section of the spaceship live on the other side of the island.
  Church: What the fuck? That's like wrong in eight different ways!
  Caboose's Mental Image of Sister: (resignedly) Yeah, I know. Tell me about it...
• Theodore Gray delights in finding new and interesting uses for the elements, but this is the thing that gave him a "No. Just… No" Reaction.
• I'm uncomfortable with this on so many levels....on this level...and this level.....
• In the Star Wars Customizable Card Game by Decipher, Inc., there's a card showing Luke getting smooched by Leia. The card's name is "This Is Just Wrong." A second kiss in the same vein is "This Is Still Wrong". Conversely, cards involving Leia kissing Han are "This Is More Like It", "This Is Even Better", and "This Is Absolutely Right".
• In the Big Finish Doctor Who Lost Stories Audio Drama "Legend of the Cybermen, a character says "that's just wrong..." after she's heard that the Cybermen have begun to cyberconvert mermaids (It Makes Sense in Context).
• Bo Burnham describes sex in an elevator with a ...larger paramour as "wrong on so many levels''.
• Astronomer Fritz Zwicky coined a thematically similar term for people he really disliked - "Spherical Bastards", because they're bastards no matter what angle you look at them from...

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