From Bad to Worse/Real Life

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • The 20th Century: It all started with German Kaiser Wilhelm II firing Otto von Bismark, and taking Germany on a path of expansionism and even more ardent militarism than even Bismarck would have approved of. This in turn led to World War I, the Great Depression, the Russian Revolution, World War II, the Holodomor, the Holocaust, the Chinese Civil War, the Cold War, the Iron Curtain, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, every conflict in the Arab-Israeli conflict, and, well, modern history in general. Half of it can be traced back to Wilhelm's policies and the problems he created, and what can't be traced to that (like the issues revolving around Pakistan and India) can be traced back to the effects of (and the horrible handling of the end of) western colonialism, pretty much making this collectively the century the world as a whole got a little bit of hope, but mostly just got progressively worse. There was a slight hope spot with the end of the cold war (the First Gulf War and continuing issues in the developing world not withstanding), and the world was looking up by the turn of the century. Then...
  • The Aughts: The Century turned: 9/11, the war in Afghanistan, the War in Iraq, Russia creeps back towards totalitarianism, genocide in Sudan, climate change gets worse, a gigantic tsunami devastates much of southeast Asia, a US city drowns, and right at the end, the global economy collapses into a spiraling recession. There's a reason that Time magazine calls 2000-2009 the Decade from Hell.
    • The moment the Second Tower was hit, cluing us all in that no, this was no random accident - this was the worst act of terrorism ever committed on American soil. When the South Tower fell, the entire world figured out that whatever anyone thought the worst-case scenario was, wasn't.
  • Sadly, The New Tens aren't looking any better in comparison, with the BP oil spill, the earthquake in Haiti, Korean tensions, bloody upheaval across the Middle East, the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, an alarming number of natural disasters (particularly weather-related ones) worldwide, the still-struggling global economy, and increasingly polarized debates over every issue under the sun in the U.S. -- among other things. Some of these events are It Got Worse situations in and of themselves (see below for the Japanese and Middle Eastern cases). Bills like the NDAA aren't helping matters.
  • The New Twenties went a few weeks or months of relative continuation from the last decade before the world found itself engulfed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Just as the lockdown was ending and people were picking up the pieces as series of wars broke out.
  • The Great Depression: And on top of that, the persistent poverty contributed to the popularity of three totalitarian ideologies whose appetite for conquest fueled World War Two.
  • The Holocaust:
    • One of the most infamous examples of systematic genocide in human history (in fact, the example that gave birth to the very word "genocide"), was a long series of things getting very, very worse for the Jewish people of Europe, along with other people that the Nazis considered undesirable or inferior.
    • Plus the fact that some people to this day try to deny that it ever happened, or that it was as severe as usually thought. There are people who honestly, sincerely care that the Nazis may have "only" killed a million people as opposed to six (or eleven, if you count the non-Jews), and that they don't have their reputation besmirched.
  • The "Rape of Nanjing" and the Second Sino-Japanese War in general.
  • In that regard: The history of Korea in the 20th century. When Japan decided to become a modern country, that meant they would have to conquer someone. With Russia and China being too big to conquer (for now), they went for Korea and took control in 1910 and stayed there for 35 years! When they were finally gone, the Communists appeared. Then came the Korean War. After the war South Korea was full with refugees from the North, had to deal with one dictator, a military junta, and two revolutions. It wasn't until the 70's that things finaly started to calm down. Today, things are finaly looking quite good again. Unless you're in the North, where the Nightmare is still going on.
  • The history of the area now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been one long slide from bad to worse.
  • The Great Leap Forward. Started off looking good, ended with tens of millions dying from starvation.
  • While this wiki has Finagle's Law, Murphy's Law is and variants thereof tend to apply, some examples being:
    • "Just when you think things cannot get any worse, they will."
    • "If anything just cannot go wrong, it will anyway."
    • "If that guy has any way of making a mistake, he will."
    • "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong."
    • "Things will go wrong in any given situation, if you give them a chance."
    • "Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong."
    • And, Smith's Law: "Murphy was an optimist."
    • The law has been named after Captain Edward Murphy, who was responsible of rocket sled tests at Wright-Patterson AFB after WWII. He said of a certain technician, who assembled the components of the test equipment in wrong way, if these parts can be assembled in a wrong way, he will do it.
    • For the record, Murphy designed fighter planes in World War Two. It was his job to consider the unpleasant possibilities, if he was going to make chunks of metal fly around in the middle of a battle.
    • Murphy indeed was an optimist. The Murphy's law forms the basis of failsafe principle: any equipment is to be designed in the way that there are no ways to abuse, misuse or assemble the equipment in the way which would cause a catastrophe. Murphy's law is not to be taken as a fatalistic statement that everything will fail no matter what is done, but as a maxim: that all possible ways of a potential failure must be eliminated already in the design phase.
  • On a similar note as above, much of the history of Central/Eastern Europe is this. Poland, Czech, Slovakia, Hungary, Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania all share a general history of getting invaded and demolished by Russians, Germans, Swedes, Mongols, Tatars, Turks and pretty much any other group that wandered in that direction. When not being invaded, there was always the chance of fighting amongst themselves. This has resulted with most of these countries spending the late 20/ early 21st century playing catchup.
    • Germany (well, what would become Germany later, at least) itself was constantly invaded by all its neighbours throughout the centuries. These IS a reason why Germans were so determined to forge a united Germany in 19th century, really.
    • Ironically Russia itself has a history of suffering from the invasions by the Mongols and and Kievan Rus, the oppression of the Imperial Russian area, The October Revolution and subsequent Russian Civil War, Stalinism, World War II, economic stagnation, the collapse of the Soviet Union which left the economy devastated an ongoing demographic crisis, and most recently significant sanctions following the 2022 Invasion of Ukraine. All these events prompting the joke that Russian history can be summarized in the sentence "And then, it got worse." along with the Russian Guy Suffers Most trope.
  • The death of professional wrestler Chris Benoit. The day before the news broke, Benoit had been replaced in a match for the ECW Championship at the PPV event "Vengeance: Night of Champions" (where it was widely believed he'd win the title) and the announcers cited a "family emergency" as the reason. The next night, Vince McMahon broke Kayfabe to relay the news to the RAW viewing audience that night that Chris Benoit had passed away; this was followed by a three-hour tribute to Benoit featuring footage from a DVD documenting most of his career, including his famous match at WrestleMania 20. Just as the show was coming to a close, the trope kicked in HARD -- news broke across the Internet (and the twenty-four-hour news channels) that Benoit had committed suicide after killing his wife Nancy and his seven-year-old son Daniel.
    • WWE would only make things worse for Benoit fans by excising practically his very existence out of their history, which led to a DVD set for Steve Austin being delayed so they could edit out matches featuring Benoit that were originally scheduled to be on the set. That exclusion left segments covering Austin's full Face Heel Turn off the DVD, much to the dismay of both WWE fans and Austin himself.
    • Recently, though, WWE has mellowed about it, and Benoit matches are gradually coming back into existence.
    • That the medical reports hinted that brain damage suffered throughout his career probably brought on the psychosis in the first place also makes it worse. The most likely cause of that brain damage? His way of making chairshots to the head look realistic: by actually taking unprotected chairshots to the head. And not just that, but many other spot-related injuries in his career. Benoit took a stiff BRICK-SHOT to the back of his head from Edge during a Street Fight match....
    • The irony being that the way he wrestled, which is what made his fans love him so much, considering him one of if not the absolute greatest wrestler that ever lived, is what lead to his demise.
    • Accusations ended up being laid against WWE executives who encouraged Benoit cultivating his iron man persona by insisting he use moves most wrestlers found dangerous. In particular was his signature move "the flying headbutt" which the wrestler who created the move strongly advocated against arguing that the few times he used it caused more brain damage than the rest of his wrestling career.
    • For the last few years of his career, the move wasn't even a finishing move, just something he's do in every match with little consequence.
    • Not only has professional wrestling still not recovered from the incident, it'll probably never recover, and Benoit's death is seen as one of the reasons for The PG Era.
  • The history of the film Heavens Gate, and how it affected studio United Artists, is just one big parade of It Got Worse. Sometimes, Doing It for the Art isn't worth it.
    • Related, most examples on Troubled Production involve a thing that's already going awry getting even worse (so much that the article notes that the results are usually noted for their quality, good or not).
  • In a not-so-depressing context, this trope is the entire point of a certain improv game called...well, you've probably guessed by now.
  • Michael Jackson's career and life from 1993 onwards -- child molestation allegations twice over, drug problems (dating back to the painkillers he took after he was burned in a commercial shoot in 1984), his seemingly decaying appearance, two failed marriages many people believed to be scams, dangling a baby off a balcony, wasteful spending and financial problems, etc. Combine all this with his artistic output slowing to a trickle and failing to escape the shadow of his work in The Eighties, and it's no wonder his North American fan base drastically shrank. This culminated in his death from a cardiac arrest at 50... right before kicking off a European concert tour aimed at countering much of the above problems. He left a mess of debts and his three children's futures uncertain, seeing how they're part of a Big Screwed-Up Family (several members of which, including his abusive father, rushed to capitalize on his death) and have virtually no idea how "normal" people live. At least Dead Artists Are Better...
  • Let's read the story of Kevin Eldridge, flying a Super Corsair in an air race. His plane had been giving him minor trouble all week, but nothing serious. The engine started to vibrate, so he figures it would be time to pull out of the race and land. Then his crew informs him his plane is on fire. (Interesting fact; in the Super Corsair, the fuel tank is directly behind the pilot.) Then he tries to bail out and gets stuck. Then he gets loose and breaks his leg. Then...
  • Mike Tyson. Ye gods. You know how for some famous people, it seems the only point of their lives was to serve as a warning to others? Tyson is a textbook example. To recap, he entered the world of professional boxing as the phenom of phenoms, LeBron James, Michael Phelps, and John Elway rolled into a compact, lethal package. He obliterated everyone and everything in his path and became the youngest heavyweight champion ever at the age of 20. You know the rest of the story:
    • His manager Cus D'Amato, the only man who could keep his violent aggressiveness under control and focused, died, and Don King promptly stepped in. Talk about trading down.
    • A few days short of his 23rd birthday, he got Rocky Balboa-ed by James "Buster" Douglas, one of the most crushing boxing upsets of all time. All three titles lost in one fell swoop.
    • Tyson seems to be putting his ring skills back into shape with several wins including two victories over hard punching slugger Razor Ruddock when he gets sent to prison for rape (which, among other things, cut off his income and would contribute to his massive financial problems later on).
    • Post prison he had a brief rebound: gave us some laughs with the Peter McNeely circus and even regained two titles. Those would be the last major wins of his career. And then he ran into Evander Holyfield, and that was all she wrote.
    • And then the infamous "Bite Seen 'Round The World," which managed to make him look like even more of a savage.
    • And then he got slowly cut to pieces by Lennox Lewis, killing whatever shreds of drawing power he had left.
    • And THEN the interview that made him look like even more of a moron.
    • And finally, getting clobbered in...four rounds, was it?...by a nobody.
    • Did I mention his financial problems, as in a reported 40 million in debt?
    • Losing one of his children in a freak accident involving a treadmill didn't help matters.
    • As it turned out, only an appearance in The Hangover improved Tyson's fortunes, as he appears to be getting back on track with his life.
  • Two words: Tiger. Woods. What started out as a car crash quickly turned into one of the biggest adultery scandals in recent memory.
  • How can anyone forget O.J. Simpson? From Pro NFL star and bumbling sidekick in the Naked Gun movies to (alleged) double murderer to petty thief.
    • Although ironically his character, Nordberg, in the Naked Gun movies was a fictional example of this trope was well.
  • The Donner Party. Oh god, the Donner Party. Ironically Lampshaded by Tamsen Donner, who wrote to her friend at the beginning of their journey that, because of being delayed by rain and a rising river, "indeed, if I do not experience something far worse than I have yet done, I shall say the trouble is all in getting started." Young Virginia Reed recalled years later that during the first part of the trip she was "perfectly happy".
  • Mike DeBardeleben, a prolific counterfeiter who operated primarily in shopping malls, hence the nickname The Mall Passer. During the manhunt for him, evidence came to light indicating that he was also a sadistic multiple rapist and torturer, possibly even a serial killer.
  • Since Barry Sanders retired, the Detroit Lions have been a dying franchise. The Matt Millen era gave the Lions such draft picks such as Joey Harrington, Charles Rogers, Mike Williams, Stockar Mc Dougle, Kevin Jones, Boss Bailey, Kalimba Edwards, and Teddy Lehman. Those were all first and second round picks who are not in the league anymore. Also, the Lions have had a revolving door at head coach (Marty Mornhinweg, Steve Mariucci, Rod Marinelli, Jim Schwartz) and at quarterback (Harrington, Mike McMahon, Jeff Garcia, Jon Kitna, Dan Orlovsky, Daunte Culpepper, Matthew Stafford); the results of that: only one year where they finished with seven wins. In that seven win season in 2007, Mike Furrey went to the media and told them to kiss his ass after a 6-2 first half. From week 9 of 2007 to the end of the 2008 season, the Lions went on a 1-23 run, including the infamous 0-16 season in 2008. They have managed to reverse the trend for the time being, the team had a 10-6 finish for the 2011-12 season, Matthew Stafford was nominated the Comeback Player of the Year, and the team made the playoffs. (Even if they did lose the wildcard game to the Saints.)
  • The Buffalo Bills have a longer trend. First, there were the four straight Super Bowl losses. Then, there was the Music City Miracle. Then, in 2004, they were eliminated from playoff contention AT HOME on the final week of the season to a Steeler team who played second and third stringers. After the Drew Bledsoe era, the Bills were treated to Kelly Holcomb, J.P. Losman, and now Trent Edwards as starting quarterbacks.
  • The entirety of the Los Angeles Clippers' team history is marked by increasing levels of futility (mainly driven by very poor management decisions).
  • Hungarian football (soccer) since the '50s. Back then, the Hungarian team was widely considered to be the best in the world; its second place at the 1954 World Cup was a shock. Then it got worse... and worse. The last time the Hungarian team qualified for the World Cup was in 1986, when it suffered a humiliating defeat from the Soviets, and was kicked out in the first round. Today, even qualifying seems unattainable.
  • Professional sports in Cleveland, Ohio since the second half of the 1980's. All 3 major teams, no less. The Cleveland Sports Curse seems to love this trope, with a few smatterings of Hope Spot thrown in for good measure.
    • The Cleveland Browns, starting with the Browns getting to the AFC Championships only to be beaten by the Denver Broncos. Three times. After that, they went into decline. They eventually left Cleveland for Baltimore and became the Ravens...who won the Super Bowl a few years later. The expansion Cleveland Browns have proven to be a living example of a Replacement Scrappy, as they've never been anywhere near as successful as the Browns in the Kosar era.
    • The Cleveland Indians. 1986 was their first winning season in decades. The next year? Worst record in baseball. Then, over the next few years, the ownership turned the organization around, the team got a new stadium, and then in 1995, the Indians got to the World Series...and got trounced by the Atlanta Braves. They managed to get to the series again in 1997, and got within ONE OUT of winning, but it slipped away when closer Jose Mesa, who had been flawless up until that point, allowed the Marlins to tie the game. They haven't been back since. In the following years, every single player who was part of the World Series team was either traded or lost to free agency. The team is currently owned by the biggest cheapskate in pro sports, who absolutely refuses to pay for decent players.
    • The Cleveland Cavaliers. They were decent enough contenders in the late 80's and they made to the 1989 playoffs, but so did the Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan, who beat them in the last seconds of the game. They were still competitive in the following seasons and got all the way to the 1992 Eastern Conference Finals, only to once again lose to Jordan and the Bulls. They would lose a third playoff to the Bulls in 1993. The next decade was pretty much a joke, but in 2003, they drafted rising superstar LeBron James. With James, the Cavs became a serious contender, and made it all the way to the NBA finals in 2006...only to be swept by the Spurs. They were defeated in the playoffs in the following seasons, and when James was eligible for free agency, he left for Miami, despite being offered less money. He also choose to announce his decision to leave in a TV special on ESPN, when it was already too late for the Cavs to replace him. Among the lowlights of the following season was a 112-57 loss to the L.A. Lakers.
  • On December 17, 2010, a street vendor in Tunisia set himself on fire in protest of harrassment by the government. This led the people of Tunisia to revolt against the government, forcing the dictator (who had ruled the country for 23 years) to step down and flee the country in mid-January. Members of the previous regime (and the dictator's party) found themselves forced to step down as well. It didn't stop there, though:
    • Protests spread to other countries in North Africa, triggering uprisings in Egypt and Libya, eventually leading to the overthrow of Egypt's government. According to The Other Wiki, major protests popped up in the countries of Algeria, Djibouti, Oman, Yemen, Bahrain, Jordan, Iraq, and Iran, with minor protests throughout the region.
    • The country of Jordan announced a restructuring of its government in response to local protests.
    • The Libyan Civil War got much worse before the rebels (with NATO help) ousted Gaddafi in August 2011. Hopefully it'll segue into It Got Better soon.
    • Syria is also experiencing a bloody crackdown on anti-government protestors.
    • This whole thing might be considered "It Got Better," (Initial revolts that overthrew several dictatorships with relatively low loss of life/injury), followed by It Got Worse (Libya was and is a bloodbath, most of the other countries are in shambles, and Syria is looking down to be brutal.)
  • Anticipating and averting this trope is the whole objective of FMEA.
  • March 11th, 2011 earthquake in Japan at 8.9 on the Richter scale. The WORST earthquake ever to have been recorded in Japan's history, and eighth worst recorded in the world. Then a 25-foot tsunami rushed through parts of northern Japan, decimating cities and towns and causing thousands to go missing. And then two nuclear plants started having problems. And then the building of one of the reactors exploded, though thankfully the reactor was unharmed. Then there was an explosion at another reactor, and this one shredded the outer shielding (though the inner shielding is reported intact).
  • The Montreal Expos. This Montreal based MLB team struggled from its creation in 1969 to find its place as a city of baseball all the way to its sad end.
    • It started badly with the Olympic Stadium. Of French design, this ridiculously large amphitheater was ill-suited for any sport (indeed Montreal would also struggle in CFL football) and met with continuous problems with a retractable roof that did anything but that. Location was also a problem, being built much too far away from the easily accessible downtown area. It was closed for repairs several times after large concrete sections fell and to this day has trouble attracting economic activity.
    • The Expos only won their division twice from their founding in 1969 through 2004. Both of those years were seasons affected by player's strikes. In 1981, a mid-season strike caused a split-season format, adding an extra round of playoffs. The Expos lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series, which was the second round of playoffs that year instead of the first. In 1994, the Expos were in first place in September when the players went on strike. The playoffs and World Series were cancelled for the first time since 1904. That result began a downward spiral in which the Expos fell from playoff contention as they were forced to either eventually trade up-and-coming players or lose them to free agency because they could not afford to pay them. Eventually, the team would end up with Major League Baseball as its owner. The league owners voted to move the franchise to Washington, D.C. before the 2005 season.
  • Most diseases follow this trope. First it starts as a little cough, or muscle pain maybe, then trouble breathing, hacking coughs, etc., and eventually you're too sick to leave the hospital, and eventually die there. Cancer is especially insidious about working this way, and if you can't catch it early on, it's just a matter of time, really.
  • When Osama bin Laden was shot dead in May 2011, the world breathed a sigh of relief as it seemed like the biggest terrorist threat of the era was finally over. But then the Arab Spring escalated, which led to a full-blown civil war in Syria, which in turn led to the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, a group that is far more powerful than al-Qaida could ever dream of being, complete with hundreds of thousands of die-hard loyal fighters and military grade equipment like tanks and helicopters. In one week, they routed the Iraqi Army and captured half of Iraq, and have slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Yezidis, Christians, and Shi'ites in their declaration of a new caliphate. Terrorist groups from all over the globe have pledged allegiance to them, and they receive millions of dollars in funding from wealthy private donors and thousands of new recruits, many of them disillusioned Muslims from Western nations, on a near daily basis.
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