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|''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', "The Fortuneteller."}}
[[Born Lucky|Some people have all the luck]]
When you're '''Born Unlucky''', it's like the world is out to get you. You, personally. Lucky pennies crumble in your hands; rabbits' feet run away in terror. Black cats won't cross ''your'' path, and mirrors shatter preemptively when you walk into the room. When you walk outside, it starts raining; when you walk inside, your house collapses. The only time you attract good luck is [[Yank the Dog's Chain|as a set up for even worse luck]]: You find a winning lottery ticket, but the wind picks up and blows it out of your hands... and into your rival's. You are really unlucky-- [[Ironic Echo|so mind-bogglingly unlucky it defies all chance]].
Look for terms like "cursed" or "born under a bad sign", although they aren't required—just so long as we know Lady Luck (or Fate, or the world, or God) doesn't like them very much. At all.
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** [[Fridge Logic|Though one would think that his 'Imagine Breaker' power would cancel curses and 'bad fate', too.]]
*** Actually, it does. This fact actually {{spoiler|solves the second season first episode's plot offscreen}}. A more specific answer is that Touma is an example of a person for whom [[Murphy's Law|good luck never enters the equation]]. Events can conspire against him and he has no natural counterbalance beyond trying harder than should be necessary, which doesn't always work.
* Himawari from ''[[
* ''[[Urusei Yatsura]]'' - the lot of poor Ataru Moroboshi is to deal with all of the crazy (but fortunately attractive) aliens of the galaxy, but that's what you'd expect from someone whose [[Meaningful Name|name means]] "hit by a falling star".
* Seina Yamada from ''[[Tenchi Muyo! GXP]]'', who has luck so bad it is more or less successfully weaponized.
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* Kumagawa of [[Medaka Box]]. His bad luck is so strong that he can rely on it to, for example, always give him the worst possible hand in a card game. Of course, when you can rely on something you can plan around it... As the series puts it, he's a man who has always lost at everything, which makes him stronger than anyone.
== [[
* Sonya Rosencrantz from ''[[Tank Vixens]]''. Her designation is 'Unit Jinx' and her function is to deflect bad luck from the rest of the unit by attracting it to herself.
* Snake from the Australian newspaper comic ''[[Snake Tales]]''.
* Calamity James from ''[[The Beano]]'' has this as his gimmck. It's sufficently bad to sabotage any attempt to make his luck better.
* [[Donald Duck]] in the Disney comics. Several stories revolve around his practically supernatural levels of misfortune. He's often contrasted with his [[Born Lucky]] cousin, Gladstone Gander.
** This is made reference to (in hilarious [[Lampshade Hanging]] fashion, no less) when Magica DeSpell curses Scrooge
*** Donald is so unlucky that he cannot even capitalize on it (winning the "Unluckiest Man in the World"-contest, working as a [[Butt Monkey]] for hire). In both cases his luck completely turned around and he was exceedingly lucky- at least until his grumpy customers/spectators were out of eyesight.
* Joe Btfsplk from ''[[Li'l Abner]]''. Among other things, typically had a little thunderstorm right over his head.▼
* Poor [[Spider-Man|Peter Parker]], he's so unlucky it's taken this long for him to be mentioned. He's even mumbled the page quote more than a few times. It should be noted his poor luck has been both played for laughs and done seriously.
* Tootles from ''[[Peter Pan]]''.▼
{{quote|''...not the least brave but the most unfortunate of all that gallant band. He had been in fewer adventures than any of them, because the big things constantly happened just when he had stepped round the corner; all would be quiet, he would take the opportunity of going off to gather a few sticks for firewood, and then when he returned the others would be sweeping up the blood. This ill-luck had given a gentle melancholy to his countenance, but instead of souring his nature had sweetened it, so that he was quite the humblest of the boys.''}}▼
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* In ''[[Ultimate SpiderWoman
== Film ==
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** It's stated that that's why The Lady likes him so much: Whenever someone realizes they have The Lady's favor, they immediately lose it because it's not fun for her anymore. Rincewind is the luckiest person alive, but since he's lucky in the sense that he's survived through some pretty awful stuff, he assumes he's unlucky because he keeps getting into the situations to begin with. Of course, he gets into the events in the first place because ''Fate'' hates him.
* Michael from the ''[[Knight and Rogue Series]]''. Just about anything than can go wrong for him will.
▲* Tootles from ''[[Peter Pan]]''.
▲{{quote|''...not the least brave but the most unfortunate of all that gallant band. He had been in fewer adventures than any of them, because the big things constantly happened just when he had stepped round the corner; all would be quiet, he would take the opportunity of going off to gather a few sticks for firewood, and then when he returned the others would be sweeping up the blood. This ill-luck had given a gentle melancholy to his countenance, but instead of souring his nature had sweetened it, so that he was quite the humblest of the boys.''}}
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* The entire Bundy family in ''[[Married... with Children]]'', but Al gets the worst of it.
** The Bundy family is under the effect of a
* In ''[[Hee Haw]]'' the quote above was used in a skit which started out with a song:
{{quote|''Gloom, despair, and agony on me;
''Deep, dark depression, excessive misery;
''If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all;
''Gloom, despair and agony on me. }}
:Then they go on to tell a sad story in poetic meter matching the song.
* Appears temporarily in ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' after Sam gets (and loses) a rabbit's foot, which grants people incredible luck while they possess it, and eventually terminal bad luck when they inevitably lose it. At one point while sitting doing nothing in a hotel room, the radiator caught fire. He managed to knock himself unconscious putting it out. [[Crowning Moment of Funny|He also lost his shoe.]]
== Music ==
* The protagonist of the song "Born Under a Bad Sign" of course.
{{quote|''Born under a bad sign
''I been down since I begin to crawl
''If it wasn't for bad luck,
''I wouldn't have no luck at all. }}
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
* Charlie Brown in ''[[Peanuts]]'' is an intersection of this and [[The Determinator]]. This also applies to his sister Sally Brown to an extent, since she has trouble in school.
* Brutis Thornapple aka ''[http://www.gocomics.com/the-born-loser?ref=comics The Born Loser]''.
▲* Joe Btfsplk from ''[[Li'l Abner]]''. Among other things, typically had a little thunderstorm right over his head.
== [[Tabletop RPG]] ==
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]▼
[[Category:Probability Tropes]]
[[Category:Loser Archetype]]
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[[Category:Luck Tropes]]
[[Category:Plot Magnet]]
▲[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
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