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Inventional Wisdom: Difference between revisions
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[[File:BOT-Overload_6711.jpg|link=Transformers Generation 1|frame|[[Sarcasm Mode|No way that button could ever come back to bite them.]]]]
{{quote|''"Why do we even '''have''' that lever?"''|'''Yzma''', [[Lampshade Hanging|hanging a lampshade]] on this trope in ''[[The Emperor's New Groove
When the villain creates a machine of diabolical nature, some function gets thrown into the mix that wasn't quite planned, and doesn't really serve any practical reason. Expect [[Lampshade Hanging]] to ensue.
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== Anime ==
* In one of the versions of ''[[
* In ''[[Parallel Trouble Adventure Dual]]'', Mr. Sanada frequently designs machines with large buttons that you think would activate them, he even coaxes the person to press the button/presses the button himself, before revealing that it doesn't actually do anything. 'It's actually' *Mitsuki sits down on a lever* 'that lever..'
** You would think Mitsuki would learn not to sit anywhere near her father's inventions the number of times this happens in the show.
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== Comics ==
* ''[[The Far Side]]'': A plane passenger is fumbling around with his seat controls, one of which is a switch marked "Wings Stay On"/"Wings Fall Off".
* ''[[Atop the Fourth Wall
* Played with in ''[[Meanwhile]]''. The Killitron is a doomsday device built by a mild-mannered inventor with no [[Omnicidal Maniac]] tendencies whatsoever. However, it turns out that it can be used to manipulate entropy, allowing for such miracles as reversing the aging process and transmuting food and water.
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** Well to be fair, he doesn't say that's what the lever is ''for''. Any [[Mad Scientist]]'s lab is going to be full of equipment on the verge of exploding, so messing with controls you don't understand is a very bad idea...
*** And given the nature of his experiments, it isn't actually such a bad idea to install a [[Self-Destruct Mechanism]].
* The Chompers in ''[[
{{quote| '''Gwen''': <s>Fuck</s> Screw that! I'm not doing it! This episode was ''badly written''!}}
* A [[Death Course]] with chutes and flames appears in ''[[Race to Witch Mountain]]''.
* In ''[[
* The trapdoor in ''[[
* ''[[Star Trek V:
* In the original ''[[Cube]]'', somebody speculates that the only reason they were put into the cube was because it had been built, and not using it would be to admit it was pointless.
* Practically everything [[Austin Powers|Dr. Evil]] owns.
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== Literature ==
* ''[[Discworld]]'' has [[Bungling Inventor]] "Bloody Stupid" Johnson, who has added quite a number of useless and dangerous things to his inventions.
** In ''[[Discworld
** Although the inventions he ''doesn't'' add the useless and dangerous components to are, if anything, even more hazardous. This is the man who invented a manicure device that's used for peeling potatoes, after all.
*** And the hoho, which is like a haha but deeper<ref>a ha-ha is a special kind of fence designed to be invisible from one side, as it is recessed into the ground. In real life, they vary from two to nine feet deep. The hoho was over fifty feet deep</ref>. It has already claimed the lives of several palace gardeners.
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** And his actual organs <ref>Not his actual organs, musical instrument he built</ref> usually include special sound effects such as thunder or animal noises, with at least one example also being connected to the building's plumbing system. The UU organ, located in the middle of a city with a million inhabitants, also includes a pipe that plays the [[Brown Note]] so loud that it causes earthquakes.
** And then there's the things that ''do'' work, but not in the way he intended them. Such as the 'potato peeler' labelled [[Squick|Manicure Device]]. Or the beehive used to store carrier pigeons. Or the table settings. Interesting fact, the salt shaker houses three families and the pepper pot is used to store half the city's grain.
** The Alchemist's Guild should also get a mention for one of their ideas (no, not the [[Discworld
*** It seemed to work okay for [[wikipedia:John Wesley Hyatt|John Wesley Hyatt]] on Roundworld. [[Reality Is Unrealistic]]?
*** Nitrocellulose becomes unstable as it ages, and easier to detonate by percussion, until in the extreme... "I done seen the whole thing, Sheriff. It were the cue ball what shot first."
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== Live Action TV ==
* An episode of ''[[Sesame Street]]'' involved a high-powered air conditioning system being installed in the Furry Arms Hotel. Humphrey specifically states that it's only meant to be turned up to 10. If the knob is turned up to 14, it will break. Those are literally his exact words. Guess what the resident penguins end up doing.
* In the ''[[
{{quote| '''Doctor''': This is my [[Timey-Wimey Ball|timey-wimey detector]]. It goes ding when there's stuff. Also, it can boil an egg at thirty paces ... whether you want it or not, actually, so I learned to stay away from hens, it's not pretty when they blow...}}
* ''[[Chuck]]'' Versus the Mask, the museum's computer room has a big red readout that says system failure. Talk about a complete lack of faith in your system. [[Fridge Logic|Shouldn't they have hired a curator who knew how to use a computer?]]
* ''[[
* An episode of ''[[Star Trek]]'' has Kirk being court-martialed under suspicion of accidentally ejecting an "ion pod" with a crew member still inside it. The prime evidence is (falsified) footage of the bridge during the incident, which includes a closeup of the arm of Kirk's captain's chair, which has three buttons on it - presumably the three things it was determined a Starfleet captain needed to be able to do at any time: "Red Alert," "Yellow Alert," and "Eject Pod." Because that third one comes up SO often.
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** [[Boatmurdered]] had a lever that, when pulled, flooded a siege workshop. It turned out it had originally been put in {{spoiler|to irrigate the farms}} and became hilariously useless later {{spoiler|when someone built a siege workshop on them}}.
* In ''[[Advance Wars]]'': Black Hole Rising, [[Mad Scientist|Lash]] proposes to the more practical [[Magnificent Bastard|Hawke]] that an airport she just finished for him be equipped with add-ons like a self destruct sequence.
* Played with in ''[[Portal (
** [[Morality Chip|Empathy Generators]] on the turrets. Too keep them able to shoot people they also installed an Empathy Suppressor.
** [[Springs Springs Everywhere|Aerial Faith Plates]] that propel the player vast distances; these were designed to send test subjects into space, apparently sans spacesuit or any other means of survival. They were also plans to use them to load cargo onto trucks, despite the fact that the cargo is thrown with such force that it either breaks it and/or causes it to bounce back out.
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* The artistic variation shows up [http://starslip.com/2006/10/25/starslip-number-374/ here], in ''[[Starslip]]''. Vanderbeam, alone on the ship, is trying to calm down and forget about ghosts, so he goes around looking at art. He looks at ''The Scream'', ''Nightmare'', and ''Vanderbeam Getting Eaten By A Ghost'', prompting this:
{{quote| '''Vanderbeam:''' Heavens, why did I ever commission this piece?!}}
* Occasionally shows up in ''[[
{{quote| '''Robin:''' By the power invested in me, I now pronounce you ''man'' and ''Batman''.<br />
'''Ethan:''' That's ''not'' why I dressed [my Batman toy] up in a suit!<br />
'''Amber:''' ... Why ''did'' you dress him up in a suit? }}
* ''[[
== Western Animation ==
* ''[[
{{quote| '''Plankton:''' Coin-operated self-destruct? Not one of my brighter ideas.}}
* ''[[Kim Possible]]'': The Lorwardian Motherships' engines have an "off" switch.
{{quote| '''Warmonga:''' Long have I questioned the wisdom of that accursed switch!}}
* ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'': In "The Monster of Phineas-n-Ferb-enstein", Dr. Doofenshmirtz's ancestor builds a device to make a potion that will make a person "Evil-Er". For some reason it also has a "[[Everything's Better
** Not to mention that every evil device Dr. Doofenshmirtz makes has a "reverse" setting, or a "self destruct" button. And every death trap he makes for Perry the Platypus has an escape hatch or escape-pod. All this is usually lampshaded by Doofenshmirtz himself saying things like "Why did I even put that there? What's wrong with me?"
** "Hail Doofania!" The Rainbow Generator features a [[Self-Destruct Mechanism]]
{{quote| Ferb: You know, in retrospect I questioned the inclusion of a self destruct button in the first place.}}
** In one episode, Doofenshmirtz spends an entire episode looking for an on-off switch so he can activate his latest [[Theme Naming|-inator]]. It turns out that all the -inator does is open the cage that he had trapped Perry in.
* ''[[The Emperor's New Groove
{{quote| '''Kuzco:''' [[Chekhov's Gag|Why does she even have that lever]]?}}
* ''[[Fairly Oddparents]]'': "Action Packed"
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* ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' [[Sadly Mythtaken|Pandora guards her box so no idiot can release its evil contents]], so why does she have a release switch?
{{quote| '''Pandora:''' I knew that "spew" switch was going to come back and haunt me.}}
* ''[[Dilbert (
{{quote| '''Leena:''' I knew I shouldn't have added that option.}}
** Given the character, she definitely planned to get some use out of it.
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** And inverted. Megas has 3 buttons labeled "Destroy the world", "Smite the world" and [[No Kill Like Overkill|"Destroy the world, worse"]], and one button labeled "Save the world". Guess which button is needed? Guess which one is missing from the control panel?
** Megas is low on oil in one episode, so Coop literally wrings the grease out of several cheesesteak sandwiches directly into a small tube that refills the tank. The gauge goes from "Empty" --> "Need a little" --> "Almost There" --> "Enough" --> "No really, I'm fine" --> and ''"PLEASE STOP!"''
* ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]]'': Recurring teenage villain Cree explained that the only reason she escaped from a prison spaceship was because one of the pilots accidentally pressed the "Blow Up The Engines" button during a fight over trading cards.
{{quote| '''Cree:''' Who else but a bunch of stupid kids would put a "Blow Up The Engines" button on a spaceship?}}
** In an earlier episode, the ice cream [[Monster of the Week]] is defeated when Numbah Three turns on the heater in the ice cream factory. Quote the delightful children from down the lane:
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** Said machine also produces several barrels worth of toxic waste every time it's turned on, for no readily apparent reason.
* In one episode of ''[[Care Bears|Adventures in Care-a-Lot]]'', Grizzle takes over Care-a-Lot using the Caretaker II, a belly-badge-stealing ray that can turn invisible. Naturally, it gets lost while invisible, and while looking for it, Grizzle warns his minions not to press [[Big Red Button|the blue button]] that releases all the belly badges, complaining that he never should have installed that button.
* In ''BOT,'' the ''[[Transformers Generation 1]]'' episode considered the worst in the TF franchise's 25-ish year history, one of the many, many, ''many'' nonsense moments was the solution to the Decepticons' superweapon: a human-level button (on a machine that supposedly had to be controlled by Bruticus, who towers above your average TF, which is why ''the entire episode was about finding all of Bruticus' scattered parts'') clearly marked "Over Load." Yes, two words. You push it, [[Exactly What It Says
* Hilariously parodied by [[Cartoon Network]] with a ''[[Birdman]]'' short (link [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPKymEC_Hss here]). Falcon 7 asks why Birdman allows [[Loyal Animal Companion|Avenger]] on his console, while Birdman insists he's "fully-trained" and demonstrates by ordering Avenger to press the Coffee button...which is right next to the Doomsday button. {{spoiler|He gets the coffee, but accidentally hit the Doomsday button too.}}
** For added hilarity, we get to see the console, and the Coffee button is sandwiched between buttons for various weapons in addition to the Doomsday button.
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