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{{trope}}
{{quote|''The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes.''
|'''[[Winston Churchill|Sir Winston Churchill]]''', 1941 address to the U.S. Congress}}
This is a subversion of [[Did Not Do the Research]]—the research wasn't done, but the writer was still correct on at least a few points—by complete fluke.
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If research not available at the time of the writing proves them right, that's a case of [[Science Marches On]] meeting this trope. If the theory would never have been accepted by researchers working in whatever field (e.g. Professor [[wikipedia:Alexander Abian|Alexander Abian]]'s theory that we should blow up the moon to stop Typhus), it's just the writers fertilizing some [[Epileptic Trees]]. If the writer was just showing off an obscure fact that he or she knows, that's [[Shown Their Work]]. Compare: [[Right for the Wrong Reasons]]. For the same principle applied to tactics, see [[Strategy Schmategy]].
Not to be confused with [[Accidental Aiming Skills]].
{{examples}}
==Comic
* In a 1940s [[Donald Duck]] comic book, there was a case where his nephews' solution to receive a boat from the bottom of the water by using ping-pong balls. Fast forward to ''[[MythBusters]]'', where Adam and Jamie were able to be the concept to the test. Much to their surprise, the ducks got this concept right.
* In the ''[[Fantastic Four]]'' comic series, The Human Torch was weak to asbestos, which was known to be resistance to fire. However, overtime, it can be dangerous for anyone who uses it as protection from fire, like Victoria Murdock aka Asbestos Lady, and it can be proven to be fatal. By having asbestos being views as villainous move, Stan Lee got this concept correct back in 1947... 23 years before the formation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Naturally, modern canon states Asbestos Lady died of mesothelioma at 45.
* Obscure ''[[Shazam|Captain Marvel Jr.]]'' villain Captain Nippon has pretty much the appearance you'd expect from an Imperial Japanese super villain out of a period wartime comic that was made a cabal of creators whose name (Jamambux) can't remotely work in Japanese. Despite this, having a Japanese supernatural brute wield a club as his primary weapon [[Youkai#Oni|is surprisingly apt]].
== Fan Works ==
* Many [[Dramatic Reading]]s of ''[[My Immortal]]'' scoff at the line which says that it was snowing and raining at the same time. This is known as "sleet" and it very much happens in the real world. If you believe one of the people who confessed to writing it as a [[Troll Fic]], the author thought it was impossible and put it in as a joke.
** It has also "rained" slush, which also works.
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== Film ==
* [[Somewhere a Paleontologist Is Crying|Any paleontologist watching]] ''[[Jurassic Park]]'' could, among other things, [[Dan Browned|call out the movie]] for its depiction of velociraptors as man-sized monsters when ''real'' raptors were about the size of turkeys. Only two years prior to the movie's release, however, paleontologists discovered ''Utahraptor'', which really ''was'' about the size of the raptors in the movie. And at the time the book was written, Gregory Paul had proposed reclassifying Deinonychus as ''Velociraptor antirrhopus'', believing the species to be similar enough to ''Velociraptor mongoliensis'' to justify it being a different species in the same genus, rather than in its own genus. Crichton chose to follow Paul's nomenclature, rather than the standard.
* The creators of ''[[Ice Age]]'' made Scrat, the sabre-toothed squirrel, as a joke. [http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/11/03/141997834/scientists-unveil-fossil-of-saber-toothed-squirrel-that-lived-among-dinos
* The idea of Jews going after their Nazi captors, like in ''[[Inglourious Basterds]]'', actually did happened [http://listverse.com/2013/01/13/10-gruesome-acts-of-justice/ most following] the liberation of many concentration camps. In other words, for [[Quentin Tarantino]] to have Jews at war against their former [http://www.scrapbookpages.com/DachauScrapbook/DachauLiberation/SoldiersKilled2.html Nazi captors] was correct.
* ''[[Iron Man 2]]'' has a scene where it's claimed nobody speaks Latin as it's a dead language: a [[Critical Research Failure]] mixing up "Dead" and "Lost" languages. It is however true that nobody speaks ''real'' Latin anymore, as the pronunciation has been lost and the Italian pronunciation currently used as a substitute would be incomprehensible to a native.
== Literature ==
* Improperly used adjectives are all over ''The [[Eye of Argon]]'' (amongst other linguistic woes). Surprisingly, the "scarlet" emerald isn't one of them: they're also called [[wikipedia:Beryl#Red beryl|red beryls]].
* In ''[[The Twilight Saga|Eclipse]]'', Bella, Edward, and Jacob hide out in the mountains on the same evening that there is a freak snowstorm. There really was a freak snowstorm in that region of the United States in June 2006.
* The 1985 humor book ''[[Science Made Stupid]]'' by Tom Weller (which was a parody of the 1960s/70s-vintage ''Golden How and Why'' science books) mocked the then-radical idea that dinosaurs and birds were close relatives by depicting a feathered, chicken-like ''tyrannosaurus rex''. Flash forward thirty years, when increasing numbers of dinosaur species have been found to have been feathered all along.
== Live Action TV ==
* ''[[SeaQuest DSV]]'' had an episode where a character claims to have found something in the handwriting of the Greek poet Homer. This has to be incorrect, because it would be impossible for a blind man to write something that wasn't written down for many years. While it's not clear whether the writers knew it, there is a significant amount of scholarship debating whether Homer was actually blind and whether ''The Odyssey'' was actually written, as opposed to an oral narrative.
* ''Se Lo Que Hicisteis'' made a joke where they referred to the [[Dragon Ball]]s as "Chinese balls", which refers to.... huh, anal beads. ''[[Dragon Ball]]'' is a Japanese series, but of course, [[All Asians Are Alike]] and All of Asia is China, so the show ''must'' hail from China, right? Except the balls are originally named in Gratuitous Chinese (A fact all Spanish dubs removed), so they're technically right. It's unlikely the guys who keep on saying the [[Maneki Neko]] is Chinese knew this...
*
* On an episode of ''[[Wheel of Fortune]]'', host Pat Sajak joked that the show had only used the category Fictional Family eight times when it came up in one round. At the end of the show, the research department found out that it actually ''had'' been used only eight times.
* In a game of the original ''[[Hollywood Squares]]'', Buddy Hackett was asked which country has the most doctors, to which he jokingly answered "The country with the most Jews! I would say Israel. you have a doctor in every family, it's a cousin, could be an uncle. Couple of specialists...". The contestant agreed, prompting Buddy to ask "You agree with that?" before host Peter Marshall revealed the correct answer was indeed Israel, much to Buddy's amusement.
** Only as a proportion of the population. Numerically, the US has the most Jews, and Russia has the most doctors.
* Something like this happened in ''[[The Wire]]'' with the character Kenard, who's seen briefly in season 3 and comes back in season 5 where he {{spoiler|assassinates Omar}}. The writers didn't actually realize that it was the same kid and only realized he'd been cast in both roles later, making it an unintentional case of [[Chekhov's Gunman]].
* [[In-Universe]] Example: ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' had an episode called "Future Imperfect", in which Riker [[Faked Rip Van Winkle|supposedly woke up sixteen years into his future]], but it was actually {{spoiler|a hologram created by Barash}}. As it turns out...
** ...Riker commented that it's unlikely to have a Ferengi helmsmen. [[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Nog became an ensign nine years later]].
** ...Riker noted that there were more Klingons in Starfleet, notably a female that he passed on a deck. [[Star Trek: Voyager|B'Elanna Torres, a female Klingon/Human Hybrid worked as a chief engineer on a Starfleet vessel four years later]].
** ...Picard tells Riker that peace talks with the Romulans began four years ago (
** ...and finally, Troi is seen wearing a Starfleet uniform, although she didn't wear one in the show at the time. [[Star Trek: The Next Generation|She started doing so two years later, although it was during the same series]].
* ''[[Community]]'' had a joke where [[Butt Monkey|Britta]] is said to have a favourite superhero character called ''[[X-Men|X-Man]]''. It's presented in-universe as a joke, with Britta either not knowing the names of the actual X-Men character she likes and calling the character X-Man instead. However, there's actually a real character named 'X-Man' in the Marvel continuity. The character, X-Man, is an alternate-universe version of Cyclops’ future son, Cable.
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== Music ==
* It's unlikely that Maria Nayler was talking about [[Binary Logic|Boolean logic]] when she sang the line "one and one still is one" in Robert Miles' "One & One", but she hits the nail on the head.
== Newspaper Comics ==
* In ''[[Garfield]]'', it is established early in the strip that the protagonist ''really'' hates raisins. Jim Davis did not know at the time that raisins (and grapes) are indeed something you should not give to cats, as they can cause lethal kidney failure, making Garfield's dislike of them logical in hindsight.
== Proverbs ==
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* The Greek philosopher Leucippus created the atomic theory, as an argument against another philosopher, Parmenides. While Parmenidies argued against the idea that a state of nothingness could exist, Leucippus argued that there were in fact voids and that everything that was not a void was made of small units of matter that assembled to create larger ones. Aristotle scoffed at the argument, stating that in a complete absence of matter, motion would no longer encounter friction and allow for infinite speeds, which he saw as ridiculous. Well, turns out that what Aristotle used to try and discredit the theory is pretty close to what actually occurs to objects in motion in space.
* The [[wikipedia:Infinite monkey theorem|infinite monkey theorem]] states that [[Monkeys on a Typewriter|a monkey typing randomly at a keyboard]] will type out the complete works of William Shakespeare given an infinite amount of time.
** More generally, he'll type out every book that has ever been written or ''ever will be''. And a whole bunch that are ''almost'' right, except for one letter. And as many that are right except for ''two'' letters. And so on...
== [[Recorded and Stand Up Comedy]] ==
* In his famous [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM ''Pachelbel Rant''], musician-comedian [[Rob Paravonian]] makes some very inaccurate claims about the piece, such as getting the date wrong by more than a century. However, the one thing that he admits that he doesn't know is the composer's first name, but guesses that it's Johann, since "they're all named Johann". Turns out he's dead right about that one.
* [[Stan Freberg]]'s two-part 1960 satire of early rock'n'roll, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhWnebZ2ZlU "The Old Payola Roll Blues"], is an [[Unintentional Period Piece]] that thought it was celebrating the death of a short-lived and unwanted genre. As such, it's filled with over-the-top zingers and [[Take That]]s intended to illustrate how illegitimate and even fraudulent rock'n'roll was. Amusingly, though, two of its gags turned out to be unintentionally prophetic:
** In part one, sleazy rock'n'roll impresario and promoter [[Meaningful Name|Barney Schlock]] demonstrates a [[Laugh Track]]-like "screaming machine" that he guarantees will generate hysterics in teen girls at his new star's performances. Of course, "real" music would never need such a thing. Several decades later, though, it was revealed that at the start of his career, promoters for [[Frank Sinatra]] had routinely hired actresses to attend his live performances and scream in simulated excitement.
** In part two, in the face of Schlock offering "payola" -- bribes to play a record often, and to talk it up -- the DJ at a big band/swing radio station refuses, and adds, "I'll play that jazz the day [[w:Ella Fitzgerald|Ella]] sings the [[w:Fats Domino|Fats Domino]] songbook." Well, Ella never sang Fats Domino... but she ''did'' record numerous [[The Beatles (band)|Beatles]] covers, including "Can't Buy Me Love", "Hey, Jude", "Savoy Truffle" and "Got to Get You Into My Life", among others.
== Theatre ==
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* In ''[[The Mikado]]'', W.S. Gilbert used the name "Ko Ko" because he thought it was [[Inherently Funny Words|funny sounding]], and didn't know at the time that it is a legitimate Japanese name.
* One of the biggest points of academic contention about ''[[Hamlet]]'' is whether or not the titular Prince of Denmark is ''actually'' mad, or just faking it. The Vikings did allegedly have some sort of taboo against killng a person afflicted with madness, which makes pretending to be one a viable survival trait for the son of a usurped Danish king. Apparently, it's doubtful that Shakespeare would have been aware of this.
** Even so, it's not entirely a coincidence. While Shakespeare wouldn't have known about this taboo, the authors of his source material would have. He probably kept the [[Obfuscating Insanity]] plot without understanding
== Western Animation ==
* Examples from ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'':
** In the commentary for the episode "The Crepes of Wrath", the writers note that the bit about adding antifreeze to wine was a parody of an incident where some wine was found contaminated with antifreeze, but that, obviously, the contamination wasn't deliberate. Except that the contamination was discovered when a winery started listing antifreeze as a business expense, and it was very deliberately added to make the wine sweeter.
** While the writers may have known that a torus is one of the contenders for the shape of the universe, ''Homer'' certainly didn't know that when he told [[Stephen Hawking]] about his theory of a doughnut-shaped universe.
** In
** Abe Simpson once recalls his father talking about America being the greatest thing since sliced bread. He then says that sliced bread had been invented the previous winter. It was just meant as an old fart joke, but given that he served in WWII and [[wikipedia:Sliced bread#History the first automatic bread-slicing machine was invented in 1928]], the writers were surprisingly accurate with this one.
* Dolphins are frequently given an [[Alternative Character Interpretation]] as violent, venal and murderous animals, unlike their "actual" gentle and caring personality. As anyone who has studied dolphin behavior can tell you, [https://web.archive.org/web/20120118011910/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1200/is_n3_v154/ai_21003387/ this interpretation is truer] [https://web.archive.org/web/20120115201827/http://www.miaminewtimes.com/1993-09-01/news/the-flap-over-flipper/ than you might believe]. It's not clear which, if any, writers knew this when they used it.
** ''The Simpsons'' did this in "Treehouse of Horror XI".
** ''The Pet Professional'' also did this.
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** ''[[King of the Hill]]'' did it with Hank getting raped by the dolphin at the La Grunta resort.
** It's worth noting that the Dolfury from ''[[Mortasheen]]'' is almost definitely ''not'' a case of this. The setting and monsters are created by a biology enthusiast fascinated with the so-called "dark side" of nature, and who often seems to hold "cutesy critters" like dolphins in open contempt. The chances that he ''didn't'' know that making his dolphin-derived monsters violent sadists who are popularly (and not necessarily incorrectly) regarded as one of the only monsters that are genuinely evil was [[Truth in Television]] to some degree closely approaches zero.
* The ''[[Futurama]]'' episode "The Cyber House Rules" features the line, "This jigsaw of a pacifier factory makes me want to have children with you even more." Originally the line was "This jigsaw of a barn makes me want to have children with you even more." By coincidence, the Swedish word for children is ''barn'', a cognate of the archaic English "bairn" when means "children". "Bairn" is etymologically related to "born".{{context|reason=How is this an example of the trope as written?}}
* ''[[The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron]]'': It's [[Common Knowledge]] that diamond is overall the hardest natural substance on earth; what only a relatively small handful of people know, however, is that for all that durability, diamond is astonishingly brittle. It is, in fact, not only possible, but surprisingly easy to take a hammer and chisel to a large chunk of the stone for the purposes of breaking off smaller fragments suitable for either jewelery or industrial purposes. So when Jimmy baited a T-Rex into slamming headlong into an enormous stone to get a smaller one suitable for his jury-rigged time travel remote, in the episode ''Sorry, Wrong Era''? Not only is that possible, but completely and utterly plausible; the show uses unabashedly wrong and fictional science just because it coasts along on both [[Rule of Cool]] and [[Rule of Funny]], so chances are good that the writers behind the show didn't do their homework this time either.
* ''[[South Park]]'' did an episode with a character called Sexual Harassment Panda that satirized how difficult subjects are often presented to children in a sugar-coated manner. Turns out [
* In the ''[[Family Guy]]'' episode
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Index of Exact Trope Titles]]
[[Category:Trivia Trope]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]
[[Category:Accidental Trope]]
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